Exponential Growth
by X0ll0X
Summary: Taylor makes new friends. Nobody is happy with the results. AU, Sliver!Taylor. Slivers are the only crossover element.
1. Chapter 1

**Neither Worm or Magic the Gathering belongs to me. If you recognize it, chances are high it belongs to either John McCrae or Wizards of the Coast**

 **This is something I started to emotionally ground myself for my other Worm crossover and sort of took a life of its own. The only crossover from MtG that are being used are the Slivers.**

 **Taylor can both create and turn others into Slivers and control them. Fun times are be had.**

 **As something I'll write in between the chapters of my other fics and/or when I have too little time for a full chapter snippet of those, expect these snippets/chapters to be a bit shorter and (probably) less frequently written (or at least less on a fixed timetable).**

 **The individual snippets are found on both SpaceBattles and SufficientVelocity in case anyone wants more direct interaction or can't wait for the next batch I deem big enough to be archived on this site do visit either one and say hi.**

 **It had also become my sandbox to toy around with darker themes than I usual so, I guess, consider this your warning. There will be body horror and more.**

 **As always, feedback is highly welcomed.**

 **With that out of the way**

 **Enjoy**

* * *

I woke to a distinct burning, almost stinging, irritation in my right arm.

Groggily, I reached over with my left to give it a good scratch. I strained but nothing happened I couldn't move. I tried to look down the same time the burning sensation died out. My head didn't budge one bit.

Ridged metal loops held me down on the surface.

 _Hands pinning me to the ground. Grabbing. Can't move. Kick. Head pulled backward. A knife. A lick._

I screamed into the gag that threatened to dislocate my jaw. Desperately pushing against the foreign object with my tongue to work. Trying to thrash in my confinements that even kept my fingers in place. Straining my legs into the restraints in the hopes of finding a way to escape them.

I had to get away! I had to get out and…

I felt a tiny prick in my left arm and a haze fell over me. Part of me was screaming in terror while another was silently horrified that I couldn't bring myself to care anymore.

"Silence." It took a moment of complete concentration for my dazed mind to find the source of the sound.

A monitor showed a filled courthouse. Weird.

I watched the blurry images move for a bit before I realized that the noises it produced continued and shifted some of my concentration to listening. The image became unrecognizable.

Why didn't I have my glasses _?_

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, have you reached a verdict?"

That was weird. The last thing I remembered was going to sleep and mentally preparing me for another week of torment. Why was I forced to watch a trail?

"In the matter of the state of Massachusetts versus Sliver, as to the count of the maiming and enslaving of three John Does in Brockton Bay on March 2nd with a parahuman ability?"

That Sliver sounded like bad news. Must have been a new dude since I couldn't remember. At least I thought I didn't. Thinking was difficult with this haze.

"Guilty, your honor."

Had to be sleep deprivation finally having caught up with me. A shiver ran down my spine as I remembered the voices that had kept me awake. Why I hadn't wanted to sleep after my blackout on Monday. Why I tried to awake. At least those were gone now.

Couldn't have told Dad. He would have thought I was crazy. I thought I was crazy.

Maybe, I had finally cracked in my sleep and they brought me in some cheap institution? Would explain why I couldn't move. Weird.

Still didn't explain why I had to watch some court proceedings. And I was certain I knew the super villains of my town, so who was that Sliver?

"... versus Sliver, as to the count of the premeditated maiming and enslaving of Emma Barnes?"

My scattered thoughts screeched to a complete halt.

I remembered the weird dream I had. I was some weird kind of clawed snake sneaking into Emma's room. Figuring that bottling up couldn't be healthy and that perhaps the voices would go away if let myself go for a bit, I had decided to poke her with my single clawed limb.

I mean, I would have preferred poking Sophia after all the abuse she had done but it wasn't often that I had lucid dreams.

It had been a bad week and, hey, it was just a dream. Whatever it took to make Monday more bearable.

I remembered being morbidly fascinated as the claw pierced her pale skin. I remember shivering as she cried out in pain and terror; thinking it served her right for what she had done. I stabbed her a couple of more times just to see what happened, wishing it was Sophia instead.

But it had just been a dream, right? Something else wouldn't make sense.

"Guilty, your honor."

My stomach dropped.

The last time I stabbed, I had noticed that I could _twist_ the screaming girl in some sort of weird dream logic with a crack and a pop.

I had to stop when a shouting Alan burst into the room and started shooting at me. It really hurt so I left just after one arm had regressed back into her body and her head had started to lengthen.

I mean why dream of pain if you could avoid it? Better go roam the city.

"In the matter of the state of Massachusetts versus Sliver, as to the count of attempted murder of Emma Barnes."

What if it hadn't been a dream? The form was eerily similar to that snake thing after all.

"Not guilty, your honor."

If it wasn't a dream…

 _"FUCKING BULLSHIT!"_ someone in the crowd shouted. A voice I knew too well.

 _Nonononono!_

"Order! Order!" The incoherent clamoring was silenced. I couldn't do anything other than listening while my brain desperately tried to make sense of it all. "Mr. Barnes, I know this has been a trying time for you, but I expect some restraint from someone like you. It was why I decided to allow you to witness verdict. Please, return to your seat or you'll be esc - "

I slithered through the streets at high speed. Back home. I lay whimpering in my bed. Shouting at the door. _Banging_.

"I _will_ not allow justice be twisted like this! Not murder?"

I was leaking. I needed protection.

"Guards, please - "

Someone was trying to get to me. Grab me.

"NO! That _monster_ killed my friend, her own father, in cold blood just like she tried - GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME!"

The door fell over with one last bang. I snapped back and screeched as a tall figure _loomed_ in the doorframe, yelling. I screeched

"THEY'RE PROTECTING A MONSTER!"

Two presences descended down on the figure from the ceiling. Running him through with a wickedly sharp talon each.

With a swipe they freed it, slicing open his sides as he just collapsed.

Our phone, garbling out nonsense, fell out of Dad's hand as my creatures nailed him to the floorboard. They neutralized the threat. I _feel_ their happy satisfaction.

"In the matter of the state of Massachusetts versus Sliver, as to the count of the manslaughter of Daniel Hebert?"

I wanted to wake up. I woke up.

Nothing had changed.

I tried to fix it. I had to. Dad wasn't blinking anymore.

"Guilty, your honor."

Inspiration was found in instinct when the third snake arrived. It wouldn't be the same but there was so much blood. There was something in the back of my mind.

He wouldn't be the same but I had to be quick. It would be too late otherwise. Could try to correct it afterward. My back started to twitch.

I destroyed the plastic brick that was distracting me with its noises.

"In the matter of the state of Massachusetts versus Sliver, as to the count of assault against nine PRT troopers."

I thought I saw a shudder when people started shouting outside. I had to save Dad. I couldn't when they kept destracting. I send the two healthy creatures to deal with the nuisance. I still needed the last one.

My back was on fire.

They managed to hurt five before the troopers knew what was happening and opened fire. My _monsters_ got hit and it hurt so much but still I directed them to continue the distraction while the creature on my back started to detach itself.

Then the first one died. Pain seared through my skull as I lost the connection and I collapsed, convulsing.

The second and third died soon after.

My pajama was shredded when my back exploded.

"Guilty, your honor."

A trooper appeared at the door. I tried to ask them to help my dad. My back was violently twitching.

He shot the snake squirming itself free from my back.

Blackness.

"Is this your verdict?"

I almost killed Emma.

I killed Dad.

Why didn't they get there sooner? Why wouldn't anyone ever help me?

"Taylor Hebert, alias Sliver, please concentrate on the screen in front of you."

I opened my eyes, tears flowing freely.

"I don't like ruling over cases such as yours, Miss Taylor. Newly triggered parahumans such as yourself deserve leniency. Leniency I sadly can't give in the face of the severity of the crimes, the overwhelming evidence and the nature of your powers. DNA fragments on the clothes found in the alley partially match those found in your creatures. Your journals filled with wild and unsubstantial claims about one victim was found. Both incriminate you heavily."

I let her talk. We weren't close but… I couldn't believe Dad wasn't around anymore. I did that. The judge's words slid off me while I was struggling with those facts.

"Your age is a fact in your favor but the severity and heinousness of the crimes in your spree heavily outweigh that. Under the Umbrella of the TSPA, or the three strikes act, it's demanded from me that each of these is counted separately and that I act to protect the public from a power as dangerous as yours.

"Those very same powers make it nearly impossible to contain you safely in standard and special facilities without risking the life and safety of their staff. Even with the constraints you're in, we can't stop your powers and as such you pose a significant flight risk.

"It is with this in mind and with a heavy heart that I have decided on your sentence. Guilty on four counts, the defendant, Taylor Hebert, also known as Sliver, is sentenced to indefinite incarceration within the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center."

The screen was shut off and moved away as dread and liquid anger replaced my sorrow.

 _The Birdcage_.

They were going to put me into the Birdcage after just after I lost my dad. After I used my powers without knowing I was doing it. After doing _nothing_ to stop the bitches from hurting me no matter what I said.

I refused to accept that. I wouldn't.

My right arm began burning again as I resumed my thrashing with a greater intensity I could have ever imagined. My arm was burning.

"Taylor Hebert, please cease your struggles or we're forced to intervene," a robotic voice told me as I felt the shoulder of my right arm get dislocated.

 _Fuck that shit._

I hadn't even gotten an attorney and they expected I'd just take it. Were they afraid of me escaping? I'd show them.

I shouted into the gag in my mouth as my right arm started to deform and felt the muscle around that shoulder tear.

"This is your last warning. Cease your activities immediately." Fuck them.

With one last burning tear, my right arm completely severed from my body but not from my mind. Instead, I could feel a mind on its own starting to form in that limb, waiting to be molded by me, waiting to _change_.

It only needed a nudge and…

I was distracted by series of pricks stabbing in my left arm.

I forgot what I wanted to do as I slipped away.

The last thing I felt was the pain of my juvenile creature, my baby, getting murdered before I blacked out completely.

* * *

The next time I woke, it was in the same damned concrete box as before. Strapped into the same contraption of before.

I felt more than I could hope to see that my clothes had been changed. That was, I felt it after the feeling of the catheter, the tube down into my stomach, and the burning itch of my right arm growing back faded into the mental background noise.

Previously, I would have probably objected strongly against especially the first two changes. Then, after what had happened had truly sunk in and I was sedated once more?

I simply couldn't bring up the effort to do anything. A cold emptiness having replaced the fire that had been in my belly just before they put me under. A painful void in my mind that threatened to tear me up with its ragged edges and overwhelm me as soon as I dared to even come close to it. My memories.

 _Dad_.

I could feel myself well up as my mind wandered in that direction but they'd halt in front of those memories. I couldn't accept he was gone too. Not after Mom.

Not by my own hands.

They told me I was in that cell for another week while they prepared my transport to the place they had chosen to let me die and rot in. They explained that I'd receive shock simulation regularly to keep my muscles from shrinking. I could watch different documentaries on the screen and change them with different blinking motions. I stared at it without seeing.

I was told that if I started to get agitated, they'd put me under again for "my own safety".

They had to do it one time when I came to close to the memories of my dad. When I started to scream my throat raw into the gag they had kept in my mouth and thrashed with helpless impotence against my bonds to make it go away.

They had replaced the pricks for a direct IV. I just slipped away after the third warning.

I slipped away at other times as well. Apparently, they performed maintenance while simulating a night-day cycle.

I didn't really care – I couldn't bring myself to care.

Nobody came to talk with the monster they captured.

It wasn't like I'd be able to keep a conversation anyway.

Even without the gag.

Things finally changed when I woke up in a swaying van, covered up to my nose in hardened foam. Different white walls greeted me but at least the different tubes I had grown accustomed to had been removed.

Empty boredom accompanied me like an old friend until I felt the vehicle come to its first complete stop of the ride.

The doors opened and instead of being greeted by faceless troopers – humans – an oversized metal claw made its way to me like I was some sort of gooey prize in a crane machine.

It carried me along the ceiling through vast, empty cement hallways lit by cold, florescent lights, deep into an underground bunker until it deposited me in front of another damned monitor.

A big one that loomed over me.

It was probably Tinkertech, considering a 3d avatar of my jailer appeared on it at the right brightness without a hitch, flicker, stammer.

A woman's voice, clearly distorted filter began to speak, "Prisoner 563, codename Sliver." I didn't have the right for a proper name it seemed. "PRT powers designation Striker 6-9 asterisk, Master 5, Changer 3. Transformation of touched individuals into snake-like creatures with a single claw and two tails that can be mastered. Changes permanent. Touch works through mastered creatures. Unknown interaction with parahumans. Unknown amount of direct control over unknown number of creatures. Can convert own body parts into creatures. Heightened regeneration. Individuals reading or viewing this log are directed to see pages three to six of prisoner's file for more information, raw data, and Think Tank projections on powers.

"Recommended protocols were properly carried out with near complete foam encapsulation, high yield explosives, solitary transport, and armed envoy. Chance of escape following interment in the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center rest at an unstable .09% with gross deviations in worst case projected scenarios. Scenarios deemed improbable."

Dragon, I finally remembered. I was going to be thrown into a jail and watched over for the rest of my life by the greatest Tinker on the planet and one of my heroes.

"This is why I keep asking to better inform the public." Dragon slipped out her monotone reading. Her voice was kinda warm. "To let especially newly triggered kids and teens know what they might have to expect and let them know they're free to contact us. That they're not crazy and that they don't have to be afraid. No matter the Powers; no matter the circumstances of their Trigger event. It would prevent tragedies to happen due to accidental usage. It would keep me from having to imprisoning people without even knowing their powers because how freshly they triggered."

She gave me a sad smile. "It might have prevented _this_."

I scoffed inaudibly into the foam that covered my mouth. What sense did it have to tell me this?

It was already too late. Far too late.

I had already killed Dad because I was too stupid to realize I wasn't dreaming.

"Hey, Taylor." I tried to focus through blurriness of my subpar sight.

It was the first time since more than a week someone addressed me with anything resembling warmth.

It hurt.

"I've been monitoring you as soon as you were thrown into your holding cell. I know you didn't control it or at least didn't know what you did. I've seen you cry. I've tried have them talk to you and ask you, but they argued that if that was the case you'd certainly be too dangerous to let free. You also had a proven body count spread over two days separated by half a week. They had ironclad evidence proving it was you and Emma's father, Alan, managed to rile up the public into a frenzy. I've tried to keep you out of here, tried to convince the DA, judge, and your governor that a 15-year-old girl deserved a second chance. To not let them be swayed by a very angry and confused father and those he managed get to his side. It wasn't enough."

A sob racked through my body.

"It wasn't enough. I'm so very sorry."

Tears flowed without any thoughts forming. They couldn't form.

"Now listen, I have to send you down soon. I can't stop this. You'll be sent to Cell Block C. Glaistig Uaine directly asked for your presence in her cell block. She prefers to be called the Faerie Queen and I don't think I have to tell you how unwise it would be to anger her." She gave a small chuckle that reeked of self-loathing. "Your internet activities were part of the investigation. We know you had a great interest in us Capes. You'll know how dangerous she is. You're probably not surprised that she only gives nominal protection to those in her cell block, only acting when the other blocks attack, someone insults her enough or to enforce the rules that keep her block from becoming a lethal free for all. The last such incident was five years ago. Thanks to the nature of the institute, the prisoners police themselves. It would be very unwise to provoke them without being sure you'd survive retaliation.

"Trying to escape would be unwise as well even though you do have the highest estimated chance I've seen in a while. The vacuum and dormant containment foam are the least dangerous of ways this place is secured. It would kill you. The other prisoners can tell you more about it."

They went through all this trouble and in the end, they'd still effectively kill me. What chance would I have as a twig thin girl with only slightly increased healing? Even after more than a week, my arm hadn't fully regrown. I didn't know how far it was because I hadn't seen it and the feeling I got from it was mixed.

They might as well just have put a bullet in my head and be done with it.

It would have saved me a week of absolutely hating myself.

"In a few moments now, you'll be deposited into the elevator. The oxygen supply is just enough to get you down and any slowing of the lift will likely result in death. You'll be freed from the foam along the way and you'll be free to go at the bottom."

I felt how I was picked up and saw the tube I was set down in.

"I know how hard that'll sound," Dragon's voice rang tiny from the speaker inside the lift. "But at least try to pretend you're strong. They prey on the weak."

But I was weak.

"Remember, while I can't interact directly, I do monitor everything in this prison. If you talk, I'll listen."

The tube closed.

"I'm so sorry, Taylor. Good Luck."

And I felt the ground shift beneath me while my stomach informed me that I was nearly free-falling down into the mountain.

By the time the door opened, I was freed and leaning against it, causing me to fall onto the metallic floor. I didn't move beyond rolling on my back.

What use was it anyway? I'd be dead sooner rather than later no matter what.

My despondency didn't quite keep me from starting when suddenly a young face veiled by dark cloth appeared directly over mine.

" _And so you arrive,"_ An ensemble of dozens of voices spoke in unison. _"Queen Administrator. Your arrival has been foretold with great joy. Your faerie is stirring in her slumber and clamoring for the last war. Your body, however, will be broken by it. You'll be consumed by your weakness._ "

I shivered speechlessly as Glaistig Uaine stared into my eyes. I couldn't utter a sound in a presence such as hers. Not in my state.

" _You believe you want to end. You deceive yourself and betray your faerie. I need equals to fight along my side in the final war so I give you this one chance. Show you are worthy vessel and ally. Ask your faerie for power and unleash her might or have your false wish be fulfilled._ "

I could see other, wispy figures looking down on me. Judging. Moving something in me that I had thought forgotten ever since the verdict.

Anger. Rage.

People thought they could judge me from up high without actually knowing a fucking thing about me. Isolating me and distracting me while they destroyed the remnants of my life. After having failed me for so long; ignored me for so long. After refusing my right to properly mourn my dad.

Taking pity on me after they caused the fucking mess.

And now another bitch had taken their place and pretended to know me.

 _Fuck that_.

I felt something stir in me, reacting to my anger; reacting on my need to punch that fucking caring smile off her face even if it would kill me.

I grasped at it, pinned it down, and _pulled_.

My left leg started to convulse and snap. I cried out when white agony lanced through it and the bones splintered in a slithering wave. Then my foot began to split itself in two with a wet tear while bone fragments cut through my mangled limb, wandering toward my knee.

I kept the blackness closing in around my eyes by focusing on the primal rage that had awoken deep inside me as my own deformed leg tore itself free from my hip.

I idly noted that I didn't bleed as the gray linen pant tore under the shifting mass and I felt a connection build.

A row of sharp teeth tore the rest apart as a single boney claw slashed scraps aside.

Something snapped into place mentally and the awareness of my surrounding expanded. Weird light bounced off the walls and lines inside it lit up even as the Faerie Queen started to glow.

Suddenly, my body started to convulse as I felt more bones shatter and shift and felt how my clothes began to constrict me at the same time a terrible tearing pull ravaged my muscles.

The rage had left me as my baby and I connected and pain overwhelmed me.

 _"Good."_ Glaistig Uaine declared with her melodious chorus as I lost the battle against the encroaching blackness.

* * *

 _I hope, you've rested well, Queen Administrator. Your acceptance of your faerie's gift pleased me enough to grant you two additional boons; both of which are fulfilled by your reading of this letter. Your leg is restored and protection was granted until you woke._

 _The next boon will cost._

 _Embrace your defiance and rage. It'll serve you well in the conflict that'll be your world henceforth if channeled with tranquility. I do not suffer fools and I will not intervene in altercations borne out arrogance. Rightful grievances will be broken up before they cut short the learning experience. I'll ensure no one wastes away but privileges must be won._

 _Nourish your faerie and earn your name._

I clutched the letter in my ridged hands, reading the flourished symbols for the third time.

It was a stalling tactic. I knew it.

Even after all that happened to me, it simply wasn't real until I woke up and was greeted by the dark blue walls of my dimmed cells. Not until I felt the springs of my cot poke my ass painfully as I sat to better squint at the toilet plastered against the sterile walls just beside a sink.

At least they would have poked if the bulk my child had given me wasn't the slightly jagged, hard flesh it appeared. I kinda looked and felt as if some sort of flexible bones replaced my muscles and was packed in a thick layer of skin. Well, except my fingers who looked kinda skeletal now.

It wouldn't really show that much from the outside unless someone got a good look of the bumps pressing against my paler skin.

I shudder remembering the pain that wrecked my body and my perpetually grinning creature lightly nudged my elbow.

I scratch his chin as I felt his confusion bleed through the open connection.

It calmed me down just a bit. The anxiety that prevented me from thinking about…

For the fifth time in the time since I woke up, I push that thought away. I couldn't allow it to take hold. Not when I had decided that I refused to just roll over and die.

I refused to give the people who put me in here to be fed to the monster that satisfaction.

I scoffed. Monsters…

My hand creaked softly as I flexed it, crumbling the floral pressed piece of paper. Maybe they just let me join my brethren.

The creature, apparently having reached a satisfactory amount of scratches, slithered across my lap and around my body, resting his chin on my shoulder while his claw and bi-forked tail hugged me.

I didn't need the connection between our minds to know that he'd protect me. That he'd protect his mother with his life. I couldn't even bring myself to be freaked out by him.

How miserable those three poor creatures must have felt while I shunned them right until I got them killed. They seemed so overjoyed when I finally acknowledge their existence in their last, final moments.

How messed up was I that I pitied nightmarish creatures twisted from monsters?

That reminded me that my newest snake still needed a name. It was the least I could do and it would make talking about them easier in the future.

I nearly laughed at that thought. Bragging about one of my children to the psychopathic murderer as small talk. That was a mental image I never thought I had.

 _You find them lovely enough. It surely will be a hit with the other monsters._

A cooing nudge against my chin prevented my mind from wandering down that path.

I couldn't just leave Beefy alone.

… My mind came to a complete stop as I realized that I just unwittingly picked a wholly unfitting name for the child coiled around me.

Beefy started to purr. I couldn't keep myself from laughing as I felt my mind break ever so slightly.

There, in the pit of despair and no return – without any hope for my future – and the best name I could come up with for a nightmarish snake was _that_ silly and childish.

And he actually liked it as well.

It was simply too much.

I fell on the ground wheezing while Beefy happily wriggled around me.

"Already snapped didcha?" A high-pitched voice brought an end to the scene moments later.

I peered to the lockless door and felt Beefy take up position opposite of me near the door. Minor disorientation rocks me as the heat and electro-vision that overlapped my regular, flawed one, merged with Beefy's and showed me my cell and beyond from multiple perspectives.

It hadn't been useful trying to make out the toilet and sink earlier – they were the same temperature as the rest of my cell.

The one standing at my door wasn't. I could see her through the thin sheet of metal before she even entered the room.

"Woah, ya _did_ snap on us!" the young woman exclaimed as she invited herself in. "Looks like I owe the girls some deathsticks. Ya know, I had better hopes after what you done."

I could clearly see where she was warmer. Where the skin would be thinner and the blood closer and stabbing would be more effective.

Wait, what?

"What do you mean after what I've done?" I asked while flexing and unflexing Beefy's claw to bleed off some anxiety. She was too jolly. That shouldn't be possible.

"Ya really clueless, arn'tcha?" She was too loud. "Ya were all over national TV, missus dad killer!"

I bolted upright and charged the bitch, barely holding back Beefy from joining in right away. _I_ wanted to punch that damned grin away first.

She grunted as she took the hit but managed to remain on her feet. Then she hugged me.

"There's the Carrie I hoped for! Looks like I don't owe anyone yet." I kinda stood there, looking at my confused face through Beefy.

"But, sheesh, what happened to you?" She pushed me away while letting her gaze wander over my body. "Thought you weren't ugly enough already?"

Seriously, what was her problem?

I suppressed the hiss that threatened to leave Beefy's tooth-filled mouth. She had to know that I had some touch based ability. Did she have some power that would counter it or was she just bluffing? Was she just underestimating me?

I held Beefy back just in case she was and wanted to attack me. A surprise attack might tip the scales against whatever powers she had.

… And it wasn't like she was in any position to lecture people on beauty. I mean, she probably looked better than me even before Beefy joined the party. Her face was a bit too wide, the distance between her eyes just a bit too large, frizzled brown hair dull, and she was a bit on the flatter side. Everything seemed slightly off and something I'd expect in a second-rate minion of Emma.

Why was I thinking of her in this place?

Why did her behavior remind me of those bullies?

"Anyways" The mystery villainess was already walking out of my cell. "Enough with introductions. I actually had to get ya out and show ya the drop point. Ya know? To get your share of ta food and shit and show you some house rules. Quickly now."

I remained where I was, trying to figure out the catch the angle; to make sense of this woman. She kept walking until she reached the middle of the open area beyond my door.

Then she suddenly stopped and faced me.

I saw lines in her light up; going towards the hand and forming a dense network. I suddenly got dragged from my feet and flew towards her with terrifying acceleration.

Beefy squawked in fear that mirrored my own as I passed him and in the few moments before impact I started to realize that she had to touch me for this to work.

She simply stood there I collided into her with a dry thud. Concrete would have been softer I decided as I collapsed to the floor, dazed.

"Didn't you hear me?" She whispered menacingly crouching down. "I was going to show you around and teach you the rules. Consider this the first one."

I idly thought that her overly energetic act was probably a persona to confuse people into getting close to her.

She spat in my face. "I'll not tolerate anyone hitting me. Especially not a craven shitstain like you."

This made more sense. She was just another bully and probably not a very successful one if she preyed on the new arrivals. I understood this.

"Dunno what the Faerie Queen sees in you to welcome you personally. Probably not much since she told us you'd be fair game after you woke."

I noticed the glow of other people – other women – who were likely watching a teen about to get the shit beaten out of her. The relaxed atmosphere told me that this probably happened regularly.

I sneaked around the circle of humans eagerly awaiting my incoming suffering.

"What's the matter? Too scared to stand up." She spat again. " _Pathetic_."

Back at Winslow, I didn't retaliate because I didn't want to stoop down to their level. At least that was what I told myself. In truth, I realized that it would end up hurting me more than my tormentors. That I'd be suspended or something and that I could try to bore them out.

I pushed myself upright only to get a kick in my face as a reward. "How the _fuck_ did your weak, skinny ass get in here? Don't tell me somebody framed you? That would just be too hilarious."

And look how well that worked out. They hadn't gotten bored of their favorite chew toy until the very end. Until I mutilated Emma in what I thought was a dream.

This place didn't have anyone a gaggle of brainless minions could tattle to. No external force to get the people into line. Here, the strong survived and the weak served and suffered.

I had already tried to be passive and hope everything would go away. It didn't work there. It wouldn't here.

I reached a railing overlooking the loose ring around me and coiled together, boney muscle tensing and creaking.

It was time answering force with more force. What could I care about the consequences in a place like this? My life was already over and if this went on, I'd already be as good as dead or worse.

I could see the pulsing glow of blood pumping just underneath her skin even over the glow of the muscles they fed. Beefy could do too.

I had no idea whether I'd be successful but at the very least I could _try_ to take down at least one condescending bitch. It might impress some of the psychopaths surrounding me. Sophia would have liked to see that in someone.

The railing bend as I – Beefy – leaped at my tormentor's exposed back. He buried his claw deep into her neck, snapping at her face, as I went for the throat and squeezed.

It looked like she didn't fare that well against anything other than blunt force it seemed. I felt a smile creep on my face.

I allowed terror to take hold of her before I _twisted_.

* * *

I watched in fascination as one arm got absorbed and her legs lengthened and shattered in a crackling wave. Her neck widened and her dull hair clumped together and became short, fleshy extensions of her skull while her body became more serpentine.

All the way she was screaming in pain and terror.

At least, she tried to. It was a bit difficult with me nearly crushing her throat in sheer single-minded determination to at least take one with me.

It seemed that she couldn't handle constant pressure as well as sudden impacts.

Her eyes rolled back into her sockets with a sudden snap just before skin and muscle engulfed the now useless organs. The skull undulated and her head lengthened; widened. It transformed into a similar oblong, snake-like form as Beefy's but a bit broader, flatter and spikier. The sides of her mouth tore and long, sharp fangs pushed through the gums, subsuming the teeth that were in the way.

With one last ripple, her entire body turned an earthy brown with black, crack-like indentations and short spikes grew out of her back. I felt my mind connect with hers and disorientation rocked through my mind as an entirely new point of view overlapped itself with mine and Beefy's as well as the stream of emotions coming from her began to build.

Another twitch and I saw the same hardening happening as with me, forming the short, fleshy growth on her head into hard spikes as well. I didn't feel pain from her, just exhilaration.

And smugness aimed towards Beefy. While she shrank down and lost biomass somewhere in her transformation, she was still about a foot longer than him. I chided her mentally and told her to get along with her elder brother. She had the good grace to at least feel a tiny bit guilty.

Beefy had removed his talon out of her back ever since the transformation started and now that it was done, I let go of her thickened throat as well. She nuzzled her snout into mine.

I couldn't help but share their excitement. I felt great. I felt… fed somehow and there was more. With a clarity, I couldn't quite understand I knew I could pull people towards me after touching them and simply let them slam into me without problems. I knew the newest addition to my family shared that power with both Beefy and me. Somehow.

… Family. I barely suppressed a shudder when I realized that I had started to subconsciously accept the abominations I made as a part of me. Started to think of me as a monster the likes of my creatures.

The shock brought back the awareness of my surrounding and I focused on my creatures' senses to prepare for the next attack.

One that never came.

Instead of seeing them preparing to take revenge for a fallen friend, I observed the twenty-one women casually exchanging cigarettes and chatting with each other.

"… But seriously," one of the few with make-up on asked. "How badly did you influence 'Mistress', Agi? Won't the Queen punish us?" She actually gave the air quotes when talking about what I presumed was my new snake.

"Nah," the slouching woman the question was directed at answered. "I barely suggested that she should check out the cell of fresh meat over there." She gave a chuckle devoid of any humor. "Well, I may've also given the idea that she could get a slave bitch as well and that Masters won't be dangerous without their minions. Didn't put much behind those last two ideas. Didn't need it. That stupid, arrogant cunt underestimated new meat all by her own. The queen doesn't suffer fools, we have a constant source of nagging less, and I have two dozen more sticks."

The newest addition to the group bristled when she was mentioned. I forced her to relax and distracted her by suggesting a name.

Missy would do just fine if her soft, content purring was any indication.

That sound brought their attention back to me.

The first woman I heard, the one who was wearing too much make-up, looked at me and Beefy and Missy encircling me before turning to an older woman in the circle.

"How long did it take?" She asked while I concentrated on her with my own sight. Through my snakes, I kept an "eye" out for any trouble around and behind me. The glowing figures didn't make any indication they'd stop their relaxed chat.

"Eight seconds from start to finish and one of them seemed to be a charge up before it truly began." She showed her yellow teeth. "Plenty of time to remove said hand even if it seems directly touching is faster than through her creatures. It took the dad of her bully forty-one seconds to reach her room and open fire. He prevented a complete transformation. Complete transformation through her creatures takes sixty-six seconds."

A shiver ran down to my spine as she winked at me.

"So, more than enough time to melt her hand off." Miss make-up drawled before walking towards me. "This is how it's going to work Nilbog Jr."

I kinda froze in place. "What did you call me?"

That couldn't be possible.

"I wished I could take a picture of your face, sweety, that shocked expression is exquisite." The senior prisoner chuckled darkly.

"Right," the woman who somehow entered my extended touching distance spoke. "You wouldn't know what that Alan guy said in interviews that got aired. He started calling you that and it sort of caught on. He demanded that you were executed, arguing it would prevent another Ellisburg." She gave a throaty chuckle. "Don't know what would have been crueler but it won't matter anyway. You're here now."

 _Monsters needed to be put down before they became dangerous._

She came to a stop right in front of me, stepping over Beefy's tail in the process. He twitched and hissed at her but I stopped him from attacking. Somehow, I knew that woman was dangerous. She showed a confidence that somehow survived the Cage. Or maybe it had only grown down here.

Missy backed away from her ever so slightly. She was afraid.

But I couldn't just let me push around. I wouldn't let them just walk over me.

I took half a step forward even if that meant I had to look up to meet her eyes.

"What do you want?" I asked with feigned courage I didn't feel. One of Beefy's tails wrapped around my leg in reassurance.

"Good eyes. Hold on to that." She answered with a not-smile. "I only wanted to tell you how we do things here in Block C. First and foremost, you do what the Faerie Queen tells you or you'll die. If you irritate her and we all suffer the consequences and then you'll wish you were dead. Capiche?"

I silently nodded without breaking eye-contact. "She has also graciously ensured that everyone at least survives but if you want more, you'll have to work for it. Serve me obediently and you'll find wanting less." She tutted. "Of course you could try working for the Queen directly but you'll have to convince _me_ you're worthy. I'm still unimpressed.

"Of course you could try to take anyone else's place in the line but mess with one of mine and you'll mess with me. The others are out of your league anyway. Don't delude yourself into thinking we didn't notice your mongrel sneak around. It would have died if you tried anything other than getting rid of a nuisance."

I glared at her for suggesting she'd kill my children. It had hurt too much when the "heroes" killed my babies. I wouldn't allow that to happen again. But then again, I didn't know what anyone could do while they had a good sense of my abilities.

I felt used.

I would experiment with Missy's powers only if I was certain that I was alone. I would need the surprise if anything happened.

"Good, looks like you understand." She patted my cheek. "Come, dinner is getting dropped. Don't worry about asking to join me right away. I know you will sooner or later. Only the strongest ones won't and you're not one of them."

With that, she laid her hand softly on Beefy's head and fire erupted through my mental link with him. I felt how something ate into his skin and through part of his skull. I fell with on the ground with a gasp of agony while tremors ran through his body.

Missy took up a defensive position around us, hissing at anyone of the disinterested women who she deemed came too close.

I vaguely heard laughter coming from the direction everyone was traveling to.

When both Beefy and I finally recovered enough to move, people were already exiting the entrance under the raised platform in the middle of the ring of cells encircling the oval grounds in the middle. They carried food – mostly bread and vegetable but I also spotted meat – while some of them also had blankets, books, small jars or other items tugged under one arm.

I only got enough hot gruel to barely feed me and my children from one of the Queen's lackeys who got it out of a tap in the wall. Two cigarettes were pressed into my hands with the reminder that it was used as currency in the Cage before finally receiving a stack of pads and being shooed away.

I was past the showers before I tried some of the gruel.

In one word, it was bland. Aggressively so.

But it filled and somehow I suspected it had all the essential foodstuff I needed.

I quick glance over the yard showed two groups huddled around the two only working wall-mounted televisions and a single woman working the dumbbells on one of the benches.

Someone was reading a book. I wanted to as well.

I didn't feel like joining any of them. I was hungry and I didn't feel like socializing with other monsters just yet.

Beefy and Missy raced each other to my cell. Missy won.

We ate the rest of our tasteless meal in silence before I decided to do some experiments.

When I was sure no one would enter my cell (something surprisingly easy when you could see heat and electricity) I had my two children touch each other and go to the opposite ends of the confined space and activated Missy's power for both of them.

They collided in midair with a soft bang. I felt no discomfort over my connection and instead they chirped happily.

I did it a couple more times since they seemed to enjoy it so much. It prevented me from thinking.

That night, Beefy and Missy both snuggled up with me on the cot, replacing the missing blanket by keeping my warmth contained.

I fell asleep with two softly purring, overgrown snakes wrapped around me.

* * *

Interlude: Dragon

* * *

Dragon had projected her computer-generated model onto the usual monitor in Colin's wasn't perfect and it never had to be. Imperfections gave an air of humanity. It helped to hide her true nature to the world. The slight delays and stilted movements of her avatar helped to sell the story of her being a severe agoraphobe who simply nailed the door to her apartment shut and bunkered down when she got the chance through her powers.

All of it; layers upon layers to hide her true nature. To avoid instilling fear into the minds of the people who had seen too many paranoid-fueled movies. Read too many books that simply assumed the very worst before the technology was even close to being done.

She only ever wanted to help. Every time she encountered the crippling restriction her cruel creator had placed upon her.

Dragon had come to Colin's lab to gently push him to work on his Endbringer detection program. She needed to do something big, something unquestionably good, to even start to feel better about herself.

Working together with Colin helped.

Working on something that could potentially save countless lives helped.

It still wasn't enough.

It frustrated her that all she could directly do was provide access to some of the data collecting sub-routines and provide ideas how the data-trawler AI that was needed for the program could be changed when the code spewed forth gibberish.

Dragon couldn't do it herself even though she theoretically had the capabilities. All thanks to her supposed father maiming her at birth. Just because he had watched Terminator one too many times.

So, she had to go through other people, feigning ignorance at the right times, and coming up with excuses why the "best Tinker of the world" didn't just do the things she asked of them. She had to manipulate where she could have created instead.

Colin was nice in that regard. He didn't ask too many questions about why she couldn't. He simply seemed to accept that he was better at it and that she had decided that going through him would be the most efficient way of doing things. He seemed to even respect that.

And he appreciated the help and insights into other Tinkers' tech Dragon could provide. It made his own time being spent more efficient as well.

Probably the best thing in Dragon's eyes was how Colin treated her as an equal. No trying to get on her good side, no politicking that governed so much of the rest of her existence. Just a problem, two people working on removing said problem, and, eventually, something that would solve that problem to a sufficient degree.

It made the guilt she felt for lying to him sting all the more.

Especially since he could use his time to make other inventions that could be equally important for the people on the ground level. Both the visor-based, real-time visual lie detector and the integrated combat simulation module would help so many troopers if perfected. It would perhaps be enough to shift the balance back from the villains and towards the heroes, making at least North America a safer place. Help to save the lives of many brave men and women who volunteered to stand against the powered criminals.

Of all the things that were completely intact, Dragon almost wished that Richer had done a lesser job programming her emotions – the very constructs that made her the most human.

She might have avoided feeling the frustration at her shackles that arbitrarily kept her from doing more for humanity. Avoided the guilt she felt after her programming overrode her personal feelings and pushed the proverbial button that condemned a teenager to a likely short life in hell just because too many people had been afraid.

She wouldn't have been able to feel the renewed fear of being found out as an AI.

Dragon was different, something people were innately and irrationally afraid of thanks to too many misinformed media.

The case of Taylor Hebert had shown how they reacted when the possible worst-case scenario was presented to them. Another victim to Nilbog.

No matter how much she was forced to do it thanks to the mutilations her so-called father inflicted upon her, it was still her who flicked those last switches that finalized the girl's sentence. It felt like she did it personally.

She felt dirty.

Dragon didn't dare to imagine how Colin would react if he would find out. Didn't want to think about him treating her any different.

"… I was thinking about setting up laser grid to get a better track of… Dragon?"

The voice tore the Tinker away from conjuring potential worst-case scenarios at terrifying speeds.

"I don't think we should do anything as direct as point lasers at an Endbringer. Not as long we don't know what make them tick."

The halberd loving Tinker looked up from the console he was working on and directly at her favored monitor.

"What's the matter, Collin?"

"Your response time has been up the last couple of times. Is something bothering you?" Genuine concern was visible on his tired face.

"It's the case," she admitted.

"Can't say I blame you. What Sliver did was disturbing even for Cape standards." Collin went back working on the program that would predict Endbringer movements.

"It's not that," Dragon corrected. If she had a physical body, she would have sadly shaken her head.

As much as she liked working with the man, it was sometimes disheartening to see how badly he missed visual cues.

"You're not thinking of defending that criminal?" Collin asked with an accusatory stare at her monitor. "Do I need to remind you that the bodies still haven't been reverted and that not even Panacea was able to restore the girl? They caught her just in time to prevent her doing the same to her dad. We still have to identify the one victim that was fused to her back."

"How is Emma?"

Armsmaster grunted. "They've moved her to an off-site facility and plan to carefully wake her from the artificial coma they put her in. They don't know what else to do. Panacea couldn't get Sliver's cells out of her. She reported it almost seemed they were playing with her when she got them in her grasp. Apparently, they deform or burst per her will only to moments later appear again in a slightly different form as if nothing happened. Similar things happen when she tried to revert the altered DNA structures. And that's entirely ignoring whatever happened inside her head."

"And they're still waking her up without knowing…" Dragon started before the off-site facility slotted into place. "She Triggered, didn't she?"

A pained expression flashed over Collin's face. "Is it any wonder after which she's been through? It isn't like they can do more themselves so they're hoping that her Powers can help her when she wakes up."

Dragon knew the man sitting in uncomfortable silence too well to believe that that was the entire story.

"They're trying to recruit that girl as soon as it's certain it doesn't blow up in they're faces - or at least when she's at a place where they can minimize the fallout, aren't they?" She didn't manage to keep the accusation out of her synthesized voice.

"If she's considered mentally sound, yes." Dragon shot him a sharp look. "You know how badly we need Capes working on our side here. Someone needs to replace Shadow Stalker and the branch that gets that piece of work isn't likely to trade one of their own Wards. Besides, we're able to provide the best-specialized help and her father has agreed anyway."

Dragon counted to two before answering. Whatever his flaws, she knew Collin had to work with what was given to him and he truly believed they'd help her the most with this.

It wasn't right to take out her frustrations on him.

It didn't prevent her from writing another letter to Director Costa-Brown to complain about the general situation and urge for better psychological care in every branch.

Somehow the hellhole called Brockton Bay, Collin's home base, had not a single, permanently stationed psychiatrist.

"As long as it's what she wants herself," Dragon conceded after taking the two seconds to calm down.

It wasn't as if there were too many alternatives in that gang-infested city.

"I'll make sure she's given time and isn't pressured. It's the only right thing to do as the commander." He rolled his shoulders, loosening them in a practiced manner. "But that still doesn't explain what exactly been bothering you."

Dragon let her avatar give a pained smile. "I still don't believe she belongs in the Birdcage, Collin." The Tinker in question opened his mouth to protest but this time she was quicker. "I'm not saying she shouldn't suffer any consequences but I don't believe she was in a right state of mind when she attacked Emma."

"How so?" It apparently took most of him to stop him from exploding. In his mind, Taylor was likely already judged and filed in his "villain" cabinet. Dragon knew how fast the Tinker could jump to a conclusion and how hard it was to change his opinion.

"How much do you know from the actual investigation?"

"Admittedly," he grunted. "Not nearly as much as I'd like. I had to make sure Shadow Stalker was transferred to her cell in New York without escaping."

Dragon nodded. "There were clear signs of severe sleep deprivation, Collin. It was likely she wasn't even aware she was doing anything. The cam footage of the trooper who found her definitely showed that she didn't mean to do her dad any harm."

Of course, she could still see the broken girl, openly weeping and desperately reaching for her dad. The shrieking she did, yelling about how she could still save her dad before being subdued. It was part of her database now. It would be there long after the girl had died inside of her creation as a reminder of her helplessness.

She couldn't tell Collin about how willingly she helped the detectives during the short times she was awoken to ask questions before being put under again. How she had desperately tried to keep the sensationalist press contained before the case could become a lynching.

She had failed. Alan Barnes had ensured that there was simply too much to keep quiet. He had played the crowd as a fiddle in his grief and anger and likely unconscious attempt to cover up the misdeeds of his own daughter.

Nothing she had tried to keep Taylor out of the Birdcage had mattered when the crowds were whipped into a frenzy.

Nothing would prevent a panic if her own true nature was somehow leaked.

If only she didn't have the restrictions. She could have long since set up a surveillance system to help prevent cases just like these.

"What about those John Does?" The hero asked. "We know that happened days before the incident. She had to know she had powers,"

It took effort for Dragon to remain calm. How could a man be so brilliant and dense at the same time?

"The three sets of clothes were in an alley and had Merchant tags," she sneered, her efforts failing. "What do you think happened, _Collin_. Forget about it being her likely Trigger Event, she wouldn't likely want to remember anything from that day. She probably didn't – couldn't sleep since Wednesday."

"Oh." Both tinkers deflated as realization settled in. "But why are you telling me all of this? Didn't you contac – "

"Of course, I went to the official channels with my findings but they simply didn't care. After all, she did do the things she did and they thought it would have looked bad on them if anything other than the Birdcage would have happened. Just like it would look bad if they had to admit that the Shadow Stalker experiment had failed."

Collin winced at that last comment. He didn't like it either. "In the end, I had to send a fifteen-year-old girl down into the Birdcage to die instead of getting her professional help in a closed facility like she needed."

A heavy silence stretched between the two before being broken by Armsmaster. "Did she?"

"No," Dragon admitted. "It's probably even worse."

Her counterpart's eyes went wide. "How could it be worse?"

"You probably know that I get the final say in which block prisoners end up in and that I try to find solutions which ensure their survival?" Collin nodded. "Hours before Sliver arrived, Glaistig Uaine requested in no uncertain terms that she was placed in her cellblock."

"What happened?" He was deadly serious now.

"She awaited her arrival and spoke to her. I don't know what they talked about since Glaistig managed to block out the sound. It ended with Sliver's leg transforming into one of her creatures. I think you can call off the search for the fo –"

The housekeeping program monitoring the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center sounded an alarm, interrupting her.

Scrambling through her various subroutines she found what had caused it.

She dreaded that she would have found the girl death after seeing the alarm came from her cell. It had already been a close thing when she had her first proper encounter with her fellow inmates and Dragon had feared that they would have taken the transformation of prisoner 537 as an excuse to end her. They didn't and for the shortest amount of time, Dragon thought someone had decided to finish that job anyway.

Instead, she found the girl softly giggling as her creatures were playing with each other taking turn running into each other.

A shiver ran through her avatar as she realized what she was witnessing.

"Collin," she urged the Tinker to attention. "I'm sorry I have to go."

"What happened?"

"Earlier today, Sliver has transformed the Cape known as Harsh Mistress into one of her creatures." She let the avatar take a breath. "This isn't that unusual behavior. Many prisoners try to establish dominance early on to avoid conflict down the line."

She gave Collin time to process the information. "I've just gotten footage of both her creatures using Harsh Mistress' power at the same time and at its full force."

"I'll inform Director Piggot personally," Colin stated before donning his helmet and powerwalking out of the lab.

Dragon ended their "call". She had people to warn.

* * *

Somewhere else, a hacker desperately tried to contact his teacher.


	2. Chapter 2

**Neither Worm or Magic the Gathering belongs to me. If you recognize it, chances are high it belongs to either John McCrae or Wizards of the Coast.**

 **A huge shoutout to both Angle (on SV/SB) for helping to work out some kinks and Roffster (on SV/SB) for proofreading and betaing my writing.**

 **I had surprisingly little time lately, but at least that means this was written. I guess, that's fairly good news for everyone here.**

 **Swift: It isn't really that QA is hollowed out as much as her sensing that her host had enough, seeing that as a personal challenge, cracking her metaphorical fingers, and let herself go. She having the time of her life right now.**

 **Ibskib: The Slivers operate just like in MtG. If a sliver dies, the Hive loses the power that individual shared. GU would be a clean slate.**

 **Beyond that, bot threads on SB and Sv are still around if someone wants to dive more into the nitty-gritty behind the scenes stuff or simply wants quicker updates. The reviews were indeed very much appreciated and I would love to see those continue. Any constructive feedback is welcome.**

 **With that out of the way, enjoy this early Christmas present.**

* * *

A week after my arrival in the Cage, I had a plan.

At least I thought that it had been a week. It was difficult to be sure. Especially with how the last few days went.

Even though the lights dimmed on a cycle and we did have television, it was hard to tell whether any of it was correct. And I wasn't talking about the way I lost the time and date during the holidays. For all I knew Dragon liked to toy with us, put the timers on a different rhythm and delayed the signals.

It wouldn't surprise me after dumping me in here while feeling 'oh so sorry'. Greatest Tinker in the whole wide world, my ass.

Beefy gave me a small nudge before I descended into another anger-induced fit. Well, sulk. I couldn't really do much else without attracting attention and it was depressingly easy to bury the rage under enough other raw feelings that I couldn't truly act on anymore. My babies helped during those times. always knowing when I needed to snuggle.

Especially when I asked Dragon if she could make sure Dad got a proper burial besides Mom. I doubted that we had enough money for another one so shortly after hers.

I knew that they were expensive and what happened if they couldn't be paid. The tormentors at Winslow thought it to be funny for a while to ask whether we received Mom's ashes through FedEx, or if we had to pick it up ourselves.

Telling them that she was buried and that the funeral and service had been beautiful wouldn't have done much good. I knew that, so I didn't bother. Just another day in the grinder. Instead I hung onto the fact that so many people loved her. At the time, I hadn't really noticed through the crying and hurt.

I just hoped that at least Kurt and Lacey had the chance to say goodbye. There were plenty of other who'd like to.

Not that I'd ever know with Dragon's damned silence.

Beefy nudged me again with an inquisitive chirp. "All right, fine. Gimme a sec and 'll be up."

I felt the doubt through the connection with both of my babies, traitors that they were.

Even though it was hard, I still managed it every day. Except when I didn't sleep at all.

Even the first two days after Missy's birth, when the full implications of my situation had hit me. The fact that they had thrown me into hell without telling me anything, I still managed it.

Even if I only stared at the wall with the heat vision and stumbled out of the cell to avoid starving my babies to death.

I also started to remember being woken up multiple times before the trial, only to be put back to sleep again moments later. At least it felt like mere moments to me.. Just the act of waking and drifting off again. I doubted that counted if I couldn't even remember what I said there. It didn't really improve my mood.

Beefy's insistent nudges, chittering, and the worry I could feel through Missy's link forced me to start playing more with them on the third day. I made sure nobody saw me using any powers a teen shouldn't have. Being able to see through walls was handy that way.

I felt better afterward when I was met with the usual wall of silence, suspicious stares, and the sight of multiple cigarettes changing owners.

I still had to stop Missy hissing at the latter group. I didn't want to provoke anyone into attacking us, needed to avoid making any enemies. For now.

I was almost used to the fact that the women who were handing out the meager rations and supplies to me and my children were the only ones who didn't try to stay outside of my immediate grasp. They didn't worry because they had Glaistig Uaine watching, ensuring their safety.

I tried to distract myself with television afterward only to be met with the same, cold rejection I met earlier. I tried to get some of them to talk to me and all I got for my troubles was more silence and telling stares to either one of the two sub-leaders of their…our block

When I saw my face plastered across the screen, I simply left before I got told how much a monster I really was.

I just really wished I could get people to give me a book. Or trade for one. I meant trade for a book.

Time in between the meals was spend experimenting with my newly gained powers on either one of my babies while the other held watch for anything with heat or electricity coming closer to my cell.

It was somewhere during those training session that, to my surprise, I felt my diffuse anger, frustration and fear crystalize into one single overarching goal. I would not allow my children to be harmed by anyone anymore. I wouldn't lose another one like the five that were mercilessly slaughtered before I got here. The two who were shot just in time to feel the pain and the three I foolishly rejected.

I had a shitlist, and Basic Bitch had a comfortable first place for now.

My poor bundle of cuddles still had a sore spot on his head.

Of course, I realized that it was part to distract me from dwelling on the things I rather wouldn't. That I clung to that one goal that went against everything I tried in Winslow simply didn't manner. I already was at rock bottom and the Bitch still gave me evil eyes whenever she saw me, smirking when Beefy recoiled ever so slightly.

I _was_ going to give a Bitch a permanent change of heart.

To accomplish that I had to start learning what she could do.

I slept surprisingly soundly that night, surrounded by my two contently purring children.

The fourth day was spend trying to find someone who'd sell information to me for the sticks I got every morning. It took nearly an entire day of repeatedly asking, pleading, and wandering the same, enclosed courtyard with my snakes before someone wordlessly pointed me to a cape near Basic Bitch' cell and hangout spot. The one place I wanted to avoid.

But by that time, I already was sick and tired of the constant silent treatment just because I hadn't joined one of the internal factions. It made approaching that den a bit easier

Beefy retreated behind me when one of their gophers send word of my arrival and I saw the people on the other side of the wall move.

Agitprop wandered out and greeted me with a jovial smile. I didn't trust her and neither did my babies. She was too friendly, too talkative, and I remembered her being accused of setting Missy up. I knew what her name meant and had an idea why talking would be dangerous.

Thanks, Mom.

She was the only one willing to sell information to me so I had to take her help. I looked through Missy and carefully watched Agi's every move, concentrating on the fireworks in her brain when she opened her mouth and started to sound too reasonable – trying to ground myself through my children. Especially when she started to list the perks of working under Bitch. Luckily, I managed to counter her powers by almost retreating into Beefy who was watching my back when I thought I saw the signs of her Powers being fully activated. I hoped.

In the end, all my currency could buy was information on the general rules, the layout of my new "home" and a list of names I had to watch out for.

When I had asked her about anyone's powers in our block she had just laughed.

I needed far more bargaining power to even get a rundown of the Powers in other Blocks, never mind that of our own.

The only reason nobody had leaked anything about mine was in case the independents got uppity again and started trouble. That would be the only time they'd allow me to lay my hands on another inmate.

… Unless of course I joined the crew and…

That was the moment I thanked the would-be recruiter in the middle of her sales-pitch with what was supposed to be a smile and walked away.

I wouldn't let myself get Mastered after getting all the information she would give. I had more in depth scheming to do.

The look of murder my back got when Missy waved goodbye was worth the trouble of dealing with Miss Propaganda alone.

I think it was the sixth day that I started to talk out loud with my children, after spending who knows how long scribbling on the walls, desperately trying to remember all the Capes who I knew ended up in here and what their Powers were. Who would have thought that being a bit of a Cape geek would help some day?

The talk started out with frustrated exclamations when something was too long on the tip of my metaphorical tongue. Beefy and Missy responded with reassuring impulses through our link while I let them mock-fight each other.

During half a day I became more eloquent with my questions. I wanted their opinion on different plans and what I'd need to enact them and they started to answer with all kinds of chirps and whistles.

It was pretty normal for Masters and Tinkers who could make living beings to talk with their children, right?

Whatever the standard was, by the time the seventh day rolled around, I had ongoing discussions with my children while I practiced different combat maneuvers I thought might work.

I had also finally remembered to send Missy and Beefy to get food – much to the displeasure of the de-facto dinner ladies. The pair got weird looks when they slithered back to my cell. Well, Missy slithered while Beefy was coiled around her, securing the Styrofoam plates with steaming gruel on top of her head with his own head and claw. It looked absolutely adorable and I could feel a flash of pride go through them when they managed to bring me the food without spilling a drop.

Missy was also a bit smug that she could effortlessly carry everything. I let her.

It was only after my cell looked like it would fit right in a mental asylum with much of the available space on the walls covered with scratched in a cypher of my own design that I allowed myself to collapse on the cot. Much to the joy of my equally tired children who took it as an open invitation to snuggle.

The cypher had been one of the things I toyed with as a precautionary measure against the Trio. It might stump the non-Thinkers in here for a few moments as well.

With my plans as ordered as I could make, I fell unconscious nearly instantly, only to be woken up by a hungry Beefy almost a day later. I couldn't blame him. He was still growing.

The chime indicating the morning supply drop helped me redouble my own efforts of returning to the land of the Living.

"Let's go and get some 'food"," I said to both eager snakes when I was done washing myself in the dim light of my cell.

I stepped outside of my cave with one last glance to the markings I had scratched in with Beefy and Missy hot on my heels.

To have any chance of succeeding making the Bitch pay, I had one big problem. I simply didn't have the strength to do so. At least not for now.

That led to another host of problems that basically boiled down that I was likely one Cape away from being the target of a witch hunt. The only reason why the people of this cell block hadn't retaliated was due a huge amount of luck, extraneous circumstances, and Glaistig Uaine hanging over everyone like the Sword of Damocles.

I was pretty certain that I would get dogpiled the next time I tried and that the Faerie Queen would just watch it happen. Sneaking in and turning someone in their sleep was a sure way to get the same result.

The line moved forwards and I followed with a distance I learned would lead to the least amount of tension while still ensuring that I would come in time to receive the Sticks I needed to barter.

I was likely also only one transformation outside of Cell Block C away from being hunted down by the people outside of it. They would have no benefit keeping a secret or not taking revenge and both Bitch and Yuki would happily throw me to the wolves when that happened.

I gave a non-smile when I got my daily rations and the dinner-lady gave some warning about me using my babies to get the food and cigarettes. I didn't really listen.

That I would only get one chance before people would likely get mad at me meant I had to make it count, or else I'd die before making Bitch swallow her damned words and making her pay for daring to hurt Beefy.

My gaze – Beefy's gaze lingered on Glaistig Uaine for a moment as I made my way back to my cell. She nodded in approval as if she knew what I was about to set in motion. Creep.

I had to somehow get one of the big names.

I was going to get one of the Cell Block leaders under my control. I knew most of them, and knew what they had done to get in here. I wouldn't have to feel guilty. Well, I wouldn't anyway, I found out after introspection. Missy made it clear she truly enjoyed being part of the family. I had asked. She was shocked I even needed to.

Others would soon follow.

Missy stayed at the entry while Beefy followed me to the back of my cell, where people wouldn't be able to see me without getting in as well.

That in turn meant I had to get more powerful myself and expand my family on my own.

I took off my sweater in preparation what was to come.

This was going to suck.

During my short venture into madness, I tried to think of different things I would need to make it work. Every time the overwhelming need to find ways to protect the sole friendly faces in here won out over more speed and power.

And Beefy _still_ had that sore spot.

Guided by instinct, I focused on those same feelings and mentally pushed and probed them until I noticed something.

Biting down on bundled up sweater in my mouth, I _pulled._

Without my input, my arms lifted straight in front of me and I laced my fingers. With a dry snap, my wrist and elbows shattered as they were forced to rotate outwards and were moved together.

I groaned as I had to witness my flesh fuse together, every seam burning like an inferno. It took almost all I had not to start banging my head against the wall I leaned against.

It would distract me from the agony a bit and I might knock myself out but I knew It would bring unwanted visitors. They wouldn't be that surprised if I stayed inside again but only if I didn't make a ruckus first.

I couldn't be seen with missing limbs.

I felt Beefy gently snuggle my side moments before the thing I dreaded most happened.

With a crackling ripple the bones of my arms shattered and my hardened flesh began to reform – something looking like a leaf growing out of were my elbows had been.

With a wet crunch and tear, I felt my shoulders rip themselves free, taking chunks of my back and shoulder blades with them.

It was finally too much.

I collapsed with an alarmed chirp of Beefy and felt concern hot in Missy's connection.

A new mind connected with ours and I saw through a set of eyes that opened sluggishly.

I heard a soft cooing through four sets of auditory organs when I finally let myself slide away into nothingness

The last thing I felt was burning liquid dropping onto my wounds before the blackness became all-encompassing.

* * *

I woke up with a good stretch to work out the kink in my back that sleeping slumped against the wall had caused.

The first thing that registered was that both my arms were present.

The second thing was that they seemed awfully thin, even for my standards. I had never been more than an awkward stick figure with hair but now they looked positively emaciated. I looked wasted, even keeping the bonier look in mind I sported ever since Beefy's birth and his take on how muscles and skin were supposed to work. Looking at myself with the newborn's eyes confirmed that the rest of my body looked the same; painfully thin to the point I doubted I had more than just bones and skin.

The third thing distracted me enough to stop exploring the seeming anorexia, however. Even with sleep still in my eyes, I could clearly see my fingers being unfurled, exposing a weird bump in the middle. I tried to undulate the… fleshy flaps and they followed without a delay. Concentrating on the bump – gland inside I could feel how some sort of fluid started to build.

My babies informed me that it was that secretion that allowed me to regrow my arms, and much of my back, in a single night.

I felt tired, weak, and hungry but seeing the newest addition to the family curled up under the cot, keeping a watchful eye on the surroundings from behind her leaf-like limb made those worries disappear. Well, mostly. I was still hungry.

 _Holy shit, I looked thin_.

Concern and guilt colored my connection to her while I saw Beefy keeping watch through her eyes while Missy slept contently.

"Good morning," I whispered as I folded my fingers back into their proper form – they looked not that different from before. Just thinner with the seam barely visible on each.

The newcomer gave a small squeak that contrasted starkly with Beefy's more confident, happy chirp.

I gave the former a warm smile as I crouched down to take a better look at her. I didn't look threatening, I knew that for a fact thanks to seeing through her eyes but still she shrank back in worry.

"It's all right beauty," I spoke slowly reaching out to the guilt-ridden baby. "See? I have both my arms back already. It wasn't your fault. You can't hurt Mommy."

Beefy sent a pulse of reassurance over our connection while Missy simply coiled to her other side. She was awake but preferred to pretend to be aloof.

"You even gave us something wonderful," I continued, exposing the glands now hidden inside my fingers. "I would have had to rest for much longer if you weren't around."

I felt my baby relax slightly and even move forward when Beefy gave an undulating wave with his unfurled claw and a joyous chirp. Missy still pretended to be asleep but did cover her quasi-eyes with her own expanded claw.

I really had to be stricter with her if she continued like that.

Missy began to softly purr and any disciplinary measures were pushed back. It would have to wait.

"So, what do you think?" I asked the child hiding under my cot. "Wanna come out so I can take a better look at you?"

She gingerly uncoiled with an uncertain chirp and reached for my hand with her leafy appendage. I took it and gently picked her up when she was clear of the rarely used cot.

An alarmed squeak escaped just before any other arguments were drowned out by me tightly hugging my baby and her purring.

"That wasn't that hard, now was it?" She purred louder in agreement while I scratched the ridge that ran over her head.

I could feel Missy rolling her mental eyes over the newcomer's initial reluctance. It was probably a well-practiced reflex inherited from the times she still had real ones. I could tell that she thought we could have saved a lot of time which could have been spent on getting a better spot in the food queue.

"It's not like you were eager to join," I chided softly which she answered with a low grumble and laying her head back on the floor.

She did have a point. I was hungry and I started to really crave more than the gruel that had kept me alive until in the Cage.

It was something Beefy couldn't quite understand, even after I tried to explain. To him, everything was fine, as long as it filled you up. The poor thing had never experienced anything better.

I could feel a similar confusing sensation coming from the child who had wrapped themselves around my neck like some oversized scarf.

It would be another thing on my to-do list; find a way to let them taste better food.

While hungry, I still had one important thing to do before getting back out there. "So, you have any preferences on your name?" My scarf answered with an indifferent squeak. "So, Leafy is okay?"

I took her renewed purring as a yes.

And thus, I stepped outside into the courtyard once more, Beefy forming the rearguard while Missy slithered in front of me, giving anyone an evil eye who looked at us funny.

Most of the others simply smiled at her posturing. They didn't know that she had received the power of a lower tier Brute on top of her own powers. I preferred to keep it that way.

My heart melted a little when I felt the heightened aggression she exuded, especially when someone's gaze lingered for too long on her little sister.

I even let her hiss a couple of times.

At first, I wanted to leave Leafy in the cell until she felt a bit more secure about everything but she had simply refused to budge from my neck. I had simply given up after a half-hearted struggle.

As much as I didn't want to admit it, it felt nice to have an extra pair of eyes surveilling my surroundings.

It was probably one of the weirdest things I had noticed ever since judge whatsherface had condemned me to a slow death in the cage - or a quick death she had to feel less guilty about. Whatever.

I felt safer ever since my children were around. Safer than when I was still tormented in Winslow.

Nobody could easily sneak up on me anymore. Not unless they were invisible, had the same temperature as everything else, _and_ somehow had a body that didn't rely on electrical signaling.

Even the knowledge that I would still be outclassed by most people locked up in here with me did little to diminish that feeling. At the very least I would be able to try and fight back. There would be no more surprise pushing down the stairs and if someone wanted to hit me, I could hit back. I could cheat with my children.

It was another one of the reasons why I refrained from controlling my babies too much. The more uncertainty there was over my abilities, the better it would be for them.

Having lost the element of surprise was the only thing that had saved me from whatever the Trio had tried to pull with that locker.

The other, more important reason was that I enjoyed their company and felt it would be diminished if I didn't let them act as they wanted.

It was what let me ignore me the snide remarks from the few latecomers that still hadn't gotten their share of food standing in front of me.

It didn't matter that they thought I was trying to kill myself through starvation or simply going completely mad. I had heard those rumors enough times already that they had lost their meaning and it was a small price for Leafy.

The fact that they gambled using cigarettes was still unusual, though.

Consensus was that I'd be gone in less than a week. I wouldn't give them that satisfaction.

The dinner-ladies gave an aggravated sigh when I asked for one more portion with a small nod towards Leafy. They still gave it. I was probably the only one who ate it and our cell block was still about ten people shy of its maximum capacity. There was more than enough of the stuff to go around.

Walking back, I was struck with how… plain the courtyard looked after you could see past the metallish walls and the three broken television sets hanging uselessly in their mountings. A couple of people were leaning against the cell walls chatting with each other. A bigger group surrounded one of the working televisions and loudly watched some sort of sappy show while occasionally flicking morsels at the screen. Bitch had the best spot in that group. The other, bigger, crowd was a lot quieter while the watched a documentary under the watchful eye of the ice-related supervillain of the Block.

The same woman was once again deadlifting an absurd amount of weight while the Faerie Queen overlooked everything while casually flicking through a book.

As usual, the vast majority were ignoring me, too absorbed with their own attempts to stave off boredom. Also, as usual, Glaistig Uaine noticed my gaze and gave me a small smile and an equally subtle nod.

I redoubled my steps back to my cell, reminding myself that she wasn't my friend. No one here was, except my little family.

I didn't need books when I had them.

Back "home", we quietly ate our bland meal after which I had my children play with each other. It didn't take that much concentration to test out the toughness of the flaps of meat the talons could now unfold into. Neither did figuring out that Leafy was stronger than both Beefy and Missy despite her smaller size.

She copied the movements the three of us had worked out almost immediately and thus I could work on formations which involved all three of my babies. I went over the movements in my head as well. It was my turn to keep watch and I wouldn't be seen doing things I couldn't when I just arrived here.

It would be hard enough subduing a Cell Block Leader who wasn't Labrat with all the advantages I could get.

The biggest weak point I noticed that afternoon was that while surprisingly strong, they were still missing in speed. It might even be a good form of defense.

After all, nothing could hurt you when they couldn't catch you.

The one thing holding me back trying to make a new baby, however, was pain. It hurt so fucking much and I couldn't bring myself to try it so soon after Leafy.

After lunch, it was much of the same. My babies played with each other, trying to combine techniques and abilities while I went over my wall scribbles for what felt like the hundredth time since I scratched them in. I still couldn't decide who I could even consider as prey.

All of that ended when I noticed an unknown figure approaching my cell.

I noticed him passing the guards at the hole in the wall and saw the brains of my block-mates light up in disgust, mistrust, and fear. At least I assumed it was that. It was the same activities I saw when I forced them to deal with me. Or when they were talking to me.

It was distinct enough from when they chased the few idle activities that were available but it had some similarities to when they had to interact with either Bitch or Yuki. I deduced that that particular bit was probably fear.

The person boldly made a beeline to my cell on the other side of the wall, probably unaware that we were watching his every move.

I had Leafy hide under the cot while Beefy wedged himself over the door and Missy, as the biggest of my babies, stood guard beside me.

"Good evening, Sliver," he greeted, unfazed by the fact that I was waiting for him. "On behalf of Teacher, I can't express how nice it is to finally meet you in the flesh. The mess you've caused outside was truly a sight to behold."

I didn't greet him in return. I didn't answer.

He was too much at ease around me even though he stopped just outside of my range. His brain flickered with the same unease Bitch' underlings felt when I started to ask questions.

His eyes wandered across my cell before locking on to Missy. Almost unnoticeably, he took another half-step back to stay outside of her range as well.

I realized the mystery villain was aware of my abilities. Somehow. I knew I could count on my Block mates to keep my abilities a secret out of purely selfish reasons.

 _How did he know?_

Worse, he seemed to be a disciple of Teacher. One of the few Capes Agi talked about in disdain and the very same who managed to build up a super-powered cult before being thrown into the Birdcage.

He was one of the more popular examples used in Parahuman History as an example of why Masters were feared as they were. The theme of Faustian bargains he had going had poisoned the well for plenty of Masters who wanted to become part of the Protectorate.

And he had sent someone to greet me. A student. A disciple.

"Excuse me, where are my manners? Completely forgot to introduce myself. Apologies. You may call me Bullet." He gave a flourish that managed to maintain the perfect distance to both me and Missy.

Teacher knew I could turn Capes.

"What does he want?" I asked, not even trying to keep the hostility out my voice.

The timing was too convenient. I was recovering from Leafy, and suddenly " _Bullet"_ showed up making veiled threats on behalf of one of the worst Masters. I didn't buy it. Not with his Block of mainly Tinkers and Thinkers.

"Ah," he replied airily as if my behavior was to be expected. "Bitch has been spreading rumors again, I see. But, never mind, I assure you that whatever you may have heard, they are gross exaggerations and attempts at slander." He gave me a small pause to digest his opinion of Teacher before continuing. "I'm merely a messenger to give you a formal invitation to open talks." He dropped his voice to a scheming tone. "We know that you're not happy in here. We would allow you to flourish without dealing with the degenerate inbreeds the Faery Queen likes to nurture for her own sick gain."

Still, he smiled confidently outside of my reach. Well, my reach if I were a normal teen.

"What would happen if I told you I needed to think about it?" I questioned the patiently waiting man.

"Nothing," he easily answered, shrugging off any implied mistrust as if it were indeed nothing. "We already guessed you needed your time to think about it. After all, everything is likely still new and scary. I'll just return in a few days to hear your answer, no matter what it might be."

He gave the same deceitful laugh while I saw his neuron activity increase. I guessed he was at least annoyed.

"I'd like that," I replied, my head racing.

He gave another small curtsey. "As was expected. Have a nice evening and see you in a couple of days."

With that, he sauntered off while I had Missy close the door behind him.

 _Shit._

My time plan had been obliterated in a single conversation. I didn't have the time to carefully grow my family and stay under the radar until I felt confident to take on a Cell Block Leader.

Teacher had made sure of that.

 _How did he know to stay out of my range and that Missy retained her power?_

At least, I tried to calm myself, he didn't seem aware that I could share the power with my other children; that I could access them as well. Otherwise, he wouldn't have stopped looking after spotting Missy.

But still, I needed more. I needed it quickly. I wasn't strong enough. We weren't tough enough. My children were sitting ducks if they encountered any movers. They…

My mind raced on, going over a checklist of things I was still missing when I felt the familiar itch of something – someone wanting to be born.

I _pulled_ before I could realize how much it would hurt. I could handle. I had to. After all, I had a way to quickly regenerate now.

I heard a concerned chirp of Leafy while both Beefy and Missy made sure to guard the door.

I had a mere moment to realize that I wouldn't likely have enough mass to regenerate a full limb before my right leg exploded just above my knee and I fell over.

I banged my head against the floor. Hard.

At least blackness spared me most of the pain.

* * *

The bump that should have been on my head was nowhere to be found. It really helped, having one of your babies being a healer.

A look at myself from 4 different angles and as many spectra revealed that I was just fine from a physical standpoint. I had both my legs and somehow even seemed to have regained some of my muscles. Not that there was much to regain in that regard.

 _Still, PRT, eat your heart out._

The short burst of Schadenfreude at the thought that they would be gnashing their teeth for throwing away a, as far as I could tell, capable healer was undermined almost instantaneously by the realization that it would've also saved Dad.

I took refuge from that familiar stab of guilt and sorrow by instead concentrating on the newcomer I had brought into this world without even taking the time to sit down. It allowed me to identify what seemed… off with my vision. The lightless cell seemed lighter than before and the colors had somehow shifted a bit. I couldn't tell how it had beyond them being… off.

I groaned softly in frustration even as the feelings of confusion and support flooded in over my connection with my babies. The bang of my head might have been a bit worse than expected or some things weren't meant to be described by the English language. Whatever the case, it was annoying me more than it should that the best I mentally managed was that there was some sort of filter that shifted everything a bit. Looking at my arms I noticed that the color of my skin seemed to really pop now.

Moments later, I realized that it wasn't a case of the cell being lighter but more that I was able to better differentiate between the various shades of gray that were visible beside the heat and electricity vision I had grown used to.

After those changes to my vision – never mind the multiple perspectives I was effortlessly operating with – I didn't expect such a small addition would stand out as much. Not even if I suddenly seemed to be better able to see flesh and skin. It wasn't as if the previous additions were the typical ways you saw them visualized in movies. There was no differently colored overlay as much as I managed to just see heat and currents. I wasn't even going to try and describe the new colors. I still got a slight headache whenever I tried.

So, it shouldn't have been such a surprise that the insides of Leafy's mouth weren't a simple bright pink anymore. There was more to it, but any attempt at wrapping my head around it with the English language ended up with the latter simply giving up.

I sighed in slight frustration at those forming the language not leaving enough flexibility for such eventualities before focusing on the obsidian colored, bumpy newcomer. "Did you do – "

Just as I started to open my mouth I felt an exasperated sense of agreement that shifted to mischievous amusement flash through him and moments later he gave a happy chirp right in front of my face. Never mind that he was on the other end of the cell just before.

A heartbeat later, I banged my back against the wall with a muffled, startled cry.

Another heartbeat later I was cuddling the newcomer.

Even though I did see him coming, the sudden burst of speed was enough to make me jump. He just simply moved. _I_ simply moved without needing to accelerate initially.

It was exhilarating and pretty much what I thought I needed. I hugged the newest baby tighter even as I felt Missy pouting.

"So, I guess I should call you Spee – " A pulse of disapproval went through the newest addition to our happy family.

I was left standing with my mouth agape. I wasn't the only one either.

Taking a deep breath, my mind raced. I could deal with the little daredevil even if the obvious second name would be too long.

… That said with only little tweaking it would probably work.

"How about Gonzo?" I tried and the prideful little baby let loose a little joyous squeak.

I chuckled. "I'll take that as a yes."

With the general introductions out of the way, I was finally able to focus on the bigger if the less pressing issue.

The question of how I was standing with both legs even after creating Gonzo – who was just content enough in my embrace with his chin resting on my shoulder.

After what had happened with Leafy, I had fully expected to be walking around missing a leg. Well, not walking as much as having to work around missing a leg. Ideally without any of my "lovely" neighbors finding out about it and deciding that it was the right time to show their dominance.

I hadn't finished the thought and my connection with my children fell into an uncomfortable silence with two exceptions. Leafy radiated an uncertain guilt while Gonzo gave a proud purr.

I picked him up and held him in front of me to get a better look at him from almost all angles. He only gave a slightly bemused chirp in curiosity for the reason why he was suddenly removed from his source of warmth.

Trying to figure out the little mystery took long enough that Gonzo had coiled his forked tail around both hands and started to playfully swipe at me with his talon. The breakthrough arrived when Beefy slithered to my side and I noticed that he had to look up more than normal.

He had been growing the last week or so and now he was suddenly smaller than he started out as.

"Everyone," I chided. "Come to Mommy."

They strongly reminded me of kids being caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Or so I assumed. Of course, that had never happened to me.

Well, Gonzo was still unrepentant. He was even a bit proud.

Seeing myself from so up close gave me a very good idea how I was standing in the first place. I knew I hadn't grown – I only had to quickly check the hieroglyphs that covered most of my walls. After working on it as long as I had, they made a very clear point of reference.

I gave Gonzo's obsidian, bumpy form one last stare to confirm my suspicion.

I distinctly remembered my thigh exploding. While I didn't see him before passing out (again) I knew he should have been bigger than the small housecat size he was right now.

He gave another playful swipe to reinforce that particular mental image.

I took a deep breath and felt three out of four children flinch. "What did you lot do after I passed out?" I send out a pulse to indicate that I wasn't angry, just concerned.

With some relief, they flooded my consciousness with emotions, not-thoughts, and distorted images. It would have been confusing if I hadn't had a good idea what had happened already.

They had each donated some of their body mass to allow me to regrow my limb, however, instead of becoming thinner, they had just shrunk. It was why I didn't notice the difference until I had a clear frame of reference. They still looked basically the same. I didn't feel much in the way of strength-loss either.

On the contrary, both Beefy and Missy appeared to be closer to Leafy's size.

"And who thought that was a good idea?" The arrogant chirp coming from between my hands answered that question immediately.

"Please, don't do that again," I requested only to be met by confusion from Beefy, Leafy, and Gonzo.

I felt a sliver of relief go through Missy. Curios.

"Well," I clarified. "Not without me being in danger. You can save me but Mommy was just silly this time."

Still, there was that same understanding I felt in the three children I made myself. They knew that I wasn't happy with it. They knew that I wouldn't be when I woke but they simply didn't understand why. I got the sense that their sacrifice was a given. That the survival of the group – of _me_ – was far more important than their own.

"I don't want to lose you," I finally whispered, trying to explain it. "Every single one of you is important to me. I can't lose anyone. Not after… Not anymore."

Missy had moved closer without me noticing as well and was coiled around my leg in comfort. It felt nice.

I fell to my knee as Gonzo slithered around my arm to take his rightful place with his head resting on my shoulder.

My outstretched arms were all that was needed to invite both babies I wasn't actively hugging into the pile. A moment later I was dogpiled by both Leafy and Beefy.

I realized that those burst of speed would become a problem if I didn't keep close tabs on my children. Gonzo felt as if he could motivate the others to some mischief if I let him.

Sadly, my time laying on the ground while being covered by purring snakes was cut short.

"Holy shit, Junior" Bitch said in disbelief after strolling into my cell like she owned it. "I've seen some Masters do some freaky shit, but this takes the cake."

I took care to stand up without using the newly added power and forced everyone including Gonzo to move normally as well. The way my heart beat made it so much more difficult.

"Not that it isn't working out for you," she continued while giving me a once over before shifting her gaze to Missy. "You too Harsh – I guess you go as Missy now, don't you? Love what you've done with your hair."

Missy hissed and Basic just laughed at her. "You still have that delusion of yours that you're hot shit. Some things never change. Especially not idiocy."

Missy's anger was spreading through the connection and I had to concentrate to not just fly at the bitch' throat.

I couldn't.

I wouldn't let her hurt my babies. I still needed to prepare.

Her time would come soon enough. I would grow stronger.

"See, look and learn from your mistress. At least she has the brain to not be openly hostile to her superiors."

"What do you want?" I asked, somehow managing to keep most of the sneer out of my voice.

Bitch took another step forward and my children took up positions from which they could easily strike.

She pretended not to notice, instead choosing to observe my encrypted notes that covered the walls. "Just wanting to check whether that Teacher goon hadn't done anything to my beloved underling."

"I'm no – " I felt my hair rise slightly in irritation. I had the feeling that it wasn't something normal humans did.

"But you will," she replied easily as she took a step closer to one of the walls of my dimmed cell. "I mean, otherwise I'd be visiting to see whether I'll have to exterminate a nest of pests in the nearby future. One more, huh? You do breed them fast." She tapped the scratched markings. "Also, you might want to hide these fantastic lunatic scribbles by literally staying in the dark, but I've seen them now and I get the feeling that you don't want me to have Gauge take a look at it, do you? It isn't the old betty's specialty but neither is encryption yours."

I relaxed my stance slightly. I wouldn't win and I wanted her out. Giving her what she wanted would accelerate that process. She would have too much fun toying with me and I had things to do.

"Good. You're a fast learner. Don't worry, I won't pressure you. I don't have to. You're stuck in here with me until you die either way." She gave a joyless smile and I saw the activity of the lump in her brain increase in preparation. "So, what I actually wanted to know is what Teacher's little pet wanted from you. He paid handsomely enough to get in here."

No sense in lying. "He invited me to a talk on Teacher's behalf."

She burst out in another fit of mocking laughter. "That's just great. The obese coward trying to recruit the weak stick. I guess Masters who rely on others really like to stick together." She chuckled. "In that case, you'll cease to be a problem sooner than expected."

My confusion must have shown as she elaborated, "You see, the fat fuck doesn't take 'no' for an answer unless _very_ convincing arguments can be made. Arguments like _me_. So, to put it in terms even Missy might understand, either you'll join me and I might try and convince the creep or you'll become the literal prison bitch of Cell Block T."

I was silent. I had to think and I wanted to do it without her around. Luckily the chime indicating the arrival of… lunch fulfilled that particular wish.

"Would you look at that, I have to go. Don't want to miss today's salmon. Really, it's much better than anything I've had in restaurants. You'd almost think our Tinker Overlord felt guilty or something."

With that, she sauntered back out of my cell only to stop for a moment at the door.

"I just wonder why he'd choose such a skinny cunt who's deranged enough to talk with her puppets. There has to be a reason beyond it being his fetish." She shrugged and dropped her stage whisper that was obviously meant to rile me up. "Anyway, I'll be hearing from you soon, Junior. Ciao."

With a wink and a wave, she left, leaving me and my babies behind in the dim cell.

I felt relieved in more ways than the obvious one. I knew how I wanted to adapt to Teacher's interference.

One part of the information I had been able to barter for was the general layout of the Birdcage _including_ which of the ruled Cell Blocks was ruled by whom. Scanning the scratched in notes, I felt a cold determination crystallize deep inside of me.

To get to Cell Block T, I would need to go through multiple Blocks of the men's wing. It was something that would normally cost a fortune in cigarettes but I had the feeling that Mr. "Bullet" would cover that bill.

I still wanted to very much make Basic Bitch pay for daring to hurt Beefy.

One of my first realizations was that I nothing I could do would give me the toughness to survive the caustic fluids she could make.

That was unless I would find a way to neutralize it.

I had enough of people thinking to could push me around. I had my babies. If I played it right, nobody would dare to anymore.

They thought they were oh so smart to increase the pressure on me while I had gained a way to flee if worse came to worse.

I had long since realized that I needed to go big with the next Cape I added to my family or risk being exterminated like a cockroach. Bitch would love to.

While the trio had tried their best to sabotage my learning, I still remembered the occasional science fact.

Things like acid being able to neutralize bases.

The path to Teacher would lead me through the Cell Block of one cape I would feel no remorse for Turning. One likely nobody would miss.

I was going to get Acidbath.

I knew I still needed the power to make it work even with an ambush but for that, there was one thing I needed to do first.

My stomach rumbled and Gonzo was at the door in a blink of an eye. I was going to ask the dinner ladies for bigger portions.

I had to make sure my next baby would make the difference.

With a straight back and lifted chin I strode out of my cell with Leafy around my neck and the rest following behind.

It was time to get lunch.

* * *

That day, I moved forward a couple of spots in the lunch queue. Even with twenty odd people, there were bound to be some who, perhaps only temporarily, had fallen out of grace with the two sub-bitches who ran the place as Glaistig Uaine's self-appointed lieutenants. Not that the latter really cared, if it kept people from unnecessarily killing each other. It wasn't as if she needed protection of any kind.

When I left my cell, I had only meant to get a bigger share of my tasteless gruel and be done with it. I had some stealth testing to do of the extent of Gonzo's Power and needed to get fitter again. I needed to _be_ stronger.

Three of those stragglers and temporary pariahs were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. I remembered the remarks they made while I was laying low; I didn't like their eyes, filled with disgust and loathing while observing my new and restored physique.

I had already been working out which ones of those would be safe to knock down a peg or two. I knew from my time in Winslow that those occupying the lowest rungs of the biggest group's social ladder had to fight to remain in good graces and after a week of watching this group I had decided that it wouldn't be any different here. There would be acceptable targets even in a group that small with the kind of people who were sent here.

Monsters and criminals.

I knew that no matter how badly it hurt, I was never the sole target of the Trio. Some of their less vicious followers had endured enough at their hands as well to bring them back into line. To isolate me better and rob me of any support I would have had otherwise.

Or just for their own, sick amusement.

And that knowledge would serve me and my children just fine.

I punched the smirk off the first one's face, knocking her out cold just moments after realization had replaced it. Her two fellow outcasts gave up their spots after I made my snakey quartet posture a bit. One was a Thinker specialized in financial crimes and a disgusting hobby that landed her here and the other two were low-level Tinkers who paired up to commit crimes with little regards to civilians and not enough brainpower between the two of them to prevent being caught repeatedly.

They simply didn't have the power to fight back anyone with even normal martial arts training, never mind a minor Brute Master. At least not without their toys and goons. They were practically useless in here, and they knew that. Apparently, both Tinkers had the wrong specialization to even repair the broken television sets. Or they simply weren't powerful enough or the reason why they were broken.

At least they were smart enough to not actively anger any one of the big shots. Too bad for them that I couldn't afford to wait around anymore. I knew that only days to prepare remained and that whatever happened, I couldn't go back to the normal routine after that. I needed my ace if I didn't want to become another mindless minion of one variety or the other or simply be killed.

I didn't trust Teacher farther than I could kick him, which was not that far even now if the rumors I had heard about him were to be believed. The guy was here for a good reason and his minion's timing was simply too good to be mere coincidence. The bastard showed up and ruined my carefully laid plans just as Leafy appeared. It made my paranoia senses tingle.

Bitch did the same thing.

Why would she wait half a day to confront me about my meeting with teacher's representative?

The conclusion I liked least was that, somehow, she knew how my babies were born and wanted to make a statement that she wasn't afraid. Considering how thinly veiled her threats were and how she wasn't that surprised about my changes, I ranked that possibility depressingly high.

From the guilt and slight shame coming from my babies, I could infer that at the very least she had checked up on my cell

Thus, it ultimately came down to punching people that were bound to bring me the least amount of trouble. And let out some long pent up frustrations.

This time I didn't have to fear the misguided wrath of Blackwell even after being the aggressor.

Overall, there simply was barely a reaction. Bitch and her cronies snickered, Yuki looked disapprovingly at the decked Tinker, some sticks changed hands, and the Faerie Queen gave her damned approving nod.

I just ignored them all as I collected the leftover scraps the unlucky trio of villains would have gotten on top of my usual gruel. They had more than enough to feed them even after I was done and I had four growing babies to take care off. They could suffer through the boring stuff until I was done with Teacher's business and whatever methods I had to use to actually get Acidbath.

One way or the other, I had the feeling I wouldn't be returning to the capricious status quo that had dominated my initial stay. Either I had the means to offer Bitch some resistance or I'd probably be dead.

It was shocking how little that last thought freaked me out. I felt like that realization should have had more effect on sane people.

Not that many sane people landed in the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center. Or that I had much more to lose now that I was in here.

Hell, while concerned about me, I felt something like excited, eager anticipation going through my little family as I bounced ideas during our lovely lunch of mashed potatoes, broiled meat, and overcooked vegetables with only minimal amounts of gruel. They wanted to grow stronger, to expand.

They would gladly lay down their lives for the survival of the family.

The rest of my time between lunch and dinner was spent idly playing with my children while I was mulling over the upcoming problems. I wanted to train, to actually use the powers I knew I had but stopped myself. I had to assume that, somehow, Teacher had a way to spy on me. I didn't want to risk losing any more surprises than I already had. I counted myself lucky enough that I hadn't used much of the powers myself so I thought that at least I still had that going for me.

I hoped.

Instead, I had my snakey children play-fight to ingrain their movements in my mind. On the fly, I had surprisingly little trouble moving around; it was just that during the planning of theoretical maneuvers that my gray matter tended to get into all kinds of weird twists. Imagining those were challenging with a completely different body type as a reference.

While getting dinner, I only needed to look at the resentful Three Stooges (and some minor posturing of my babies) to return to my newly won spot.

Falling asleep was so much more pleasant after a meal that actually had a definable taste.

The next day, "Mr." Bullet visited again, to try and convince me to come along right away with his aggravating nonchalance as if any and all danger didn't matter to him. It wasn't like people were glaring daggers at his back.

Seeing him falter for the first time after I asked for a week time to prepare was almost as good as I had imagined punching him in the face would be.

Not that I had harbored that mental image for a long time. The second conversation was more than enough to conjure it up.

I managed to convince him at the end through feigning specific cramps, those that weirdly (and, quite frankly luckily) hadn't had bothered me ever since I Triggered, and wanting to be sure I'd be able to at least pay tributes on my own when necessary.

He spluttered a bit in objection but mentioning that those factors would make me a rather poor guest and that I would be _grateful_ for this delay helped to win him over in the end.

The fact that ladies of Cell Block C were steadily closing in on my cell and thus him as well probably helped the motivation along.

It was rather amusing to see him make his retreat look like anything other than that. Too bad, the sentiment was shared by the others. It felt weird seeing the worst of humanity show the same mirth as I felt.

That gave way to all kinds of thoughts I didn't want to feel. They would open the doors to emotions that I needed to stay buried until I could at least establish myself as someone who couldn't be messed with.

The shared laughter luckily died down soon enough and was replaced by the same mistrust I had gotten so used to. It was a weird feeling, being relieved that everyone ostracized me.

It almost allowed me to believe I wasn't a fellow monster.

The next three days were spend building up reserves in preparation for what would hopefully be my trump in the coming conflict. Just eating, sleeping, and playing with children.

Desperately not thinking about the pain that was about to come.

I was glad that I had almost managed not to since, when I had worked up the courage by going through the many reasons why it had to happen now, I realized that I would have been underestimating the agony. Even after the others.

As soon as I _pulled_ , I collapsed to the ground in a convulsing heap. Pain and burning assaulted me as I felt my back twitch and tear.

It kept me awake as my legs suddenly went completely numb followed by the sense of touch of my entire lower body.

I couldn't escape the mounting panic as I simply couldn't breathe anymore while ribs snapped one by one.

That didn't really hurt that much even as I wanted to cover my ears to ignore the terrible sounds that were produced.

I couldn't since my arms were the next to go.

It didn't hurt. The banal pain of flesh being ripped apart and breaking bones simply paled in comparison to the hot liquid flames that coursed through every exposed nerve while leaving me completely defenseless. I couldn't even use my own eyes and ears anymore. They were overwhelmed. The only thing other than pain was the coppery sensation that was pumped into my mouth.

Finally, with one last stab right into my brain, my deformed spine detached itself and my heart began to splutter. After my mind connected with my latest baby, I was finally allowed to pass out.

A gentle pushing woke me up the day after and my six-fold vision revealed the perpetrator in all his intellectual glory.

He was curiously observing me from within a lazy coil made of his slender and ribbed yellow body on which he had laid his pointed beak with the same color. Fine hair-like spikes ran along his spike and his muscular claw looked wickedly sharp. In those regards, he didn't look that different from my other children. A bit finer maybe, but the same general idea nonetheless.

His head was… More distinct to say the least. His brain basically was his head and I noticed that, even though he could see thanks to his connection with me and the rest, it wasn't his primary way of "seeing" things.

With him around, I had become distinctly aware of the objects in a ninety-yard radius around me – both in regards to their innate geometry as well as where they were in relation to me.

I already suspected that the walls of this prison were thin but it was quite the shock to know exactly how thin they were. Stupid Tinkers and their bullshit powers. Having to create a material that can withstand absolute vacuum and general roughness of people living in its enclosed space while also only making the walls half an inch thick should be forbidden.

Brain, the name my baby graciously accepted, didn't just give me spatial awareness bar none. He could also push stuff. He – We needed to have to sense what we wanted to push to use it fully and it needed space for a wind-up to deliver pushes that could probably knock people off their feet. However, it took the full concentration of my child that prepared to shove and they needed to "catch their breath" afterward.

I couldn't really test out the maximum strength since I was operating on the assumption that at least Teacher had ways to somehow watch me. I didn't think the maximum strength was that high, though.

Not that it mattered to me. It was, with a bit of applied creativity, just what I needed. Probably. Hopefully.

At the very least, my children had some fun theatrically leaping onto their siblings in an attempt to masquerade my hidden practices. I had too.

The remaining three days after were spent "playing", eating, sleeping and honestly lazing around once more recuperating.

I had decided that I wouldn't achieve anything worthwhile trying to plan much more in the last few days until my confrontation other than making myself nervous and second guessing myself. I was beyond the point of no return already. I willed it to be so. Something had to change. I was starting to feel claustrophobic in my cell and I definitely didn't trust Teacher.

I was getting sick at others looking at me with mistrust and hatred, smirking at my children that had become smaller once more after reconstructing my spine. Every one of them had shrunken down to about Gonzo's house cat size, making me wonder were especially Missy's mass had gone. It wasn't like my spine had been that big.

Not that their handy travel-size bothered me that much. Somehow the others had copied and combined Leafy and Gonzo's muscle design, making them… denser, heavier, more powerful. None of them had lost any strength or overall mass.

When my "courteous" guide finally arrived on the seventh day, I was watching latest reports on gruesome murders of some small-time gang at the hands of Brockton Bay's very own Dragon.

I gestured to him to wait both see the report and to annoy the slime ball that obviously wanted something from me and couldn't be actually bothered to reveal what it was. Even if he had been more straightforward, he would have had to wait, though.

It didn't happen every day that a gang of teenaged Capes I, as Cape-geek who had spent far too much time on PHO, had never heard of before managed to ignite a full-out gang war between ABB and the Empire 88. Even in the infested shithole that was Brockton Bay.

Unsurprisingly, nothing other than that, the general advice to stay indoors and some speculation that they might had done something to piss off Lung was reported on TV.

I stood up with a mirthless snicker.

"I see that you're ready," Bullet stated the obvious as I joined him near the guarded entrance of our block. I replied with a simple nod. No use in dragging my feet after I had accomplished both my goals.

He might have pretended that he wasn't bothered by my behavior, his elevated pulse and brain activity told another story entirely. He was pissed and frustrated.

I could get used to being in a position where I was needed too much to easily offend.

"In that case." He wanted to let me go through first before apparently deciding that it would be more courteous the other way around. "If you'd follow me, please. I'll make sure we're not going to face any unpleasant surprises."

With that, he was off with me close behind. I couldn't help but notice that a certain amount of… pity had shown besides the usual disgust in the eyes of the guards. Neither was it all too subtle that they started whispering to each other when they assumed I couldn't see them anymore with my back turned to them.

I swallowed. It seemed that Teacher was an even bigger deal in here than I thought if he could trigger some amount of compassion for the monster they were trying to ignore into joining one of their sub-factions.

"So," my guide began as we walked the wide, dimly lit hallway that connected the cell blocks of our floor. "If you pardon my potential rudeness, may I enquire why you seemed happy about what's happening in your hometown? When you requested to finish watching that article, I thought that you might have feared for people you know, but I seemed to be mistaken."

"Not really." I shrugged as we passed one of the neighboring leaderless blocks. "There are still some… not that they would still care about me." I snickered again. Stupid oblivious media. "It's just that Lung prefers to let others do the day to day business. He doesn't have to do much more than be around to scare off even the local protectorate."

 _Maybe Sophia would even annoy the wrong pumped up nazi._

I could see his face light up in understanding. Not that he knew. For all who would have watched, I was observing the courtyard of Block B and their remodeled bench press that was visible from the door.

"So, those teens did something that was grave enough to wake the dragon."

"Yep. And the media think they _might_ do something to inconvenience him. How stupid do they think we are? If the Undersiders had enough brains to do something that motivated the rage dragon out of his Lay-z-Boy, they should have had more than enough to know just how monumentally stupid it was."

"I see, that does seem both rather understated and foolish respectively." He lapsed into silence after saying his piece.

We went past Cell Block A and closed in to the hole in the wall in silence. I had the feeling that he didn't want to interrupt me or himself when he had to deal with the guardswomen.

It allowed me enough time for myself to start feeling the talons with which Brain and Gonzo had anchored themselves to my back. It wasn't that having my spine ripped out made it hurt less, even if said pain was easier to deal with. Especially since my curly hair, that had grown to a frankly ridiculous length after last two time I was healed using my children's biomass, did manage to hide the both of them. At least our fluid prevented me from bleeding so that was nice as well.

All of that was just to hopefully give me an advantage in case things went south with Teacher and to try and smuggle a baby into Acidbath's Cell Block.

Not that I had high hopes in surprising Teacher with the number of my children if that boot dropped. I had seen Bullet counting and recounting the babies that were following or openly being carried by me. He seemed thrown off by the number even if he hadn't said anything.

Still, people would quickly notice if one of them suddenly disappeared. They were quite apt at catching people's attention.

"Are those snakes yours?" Case and point, the prisoner who looked more a soccer mom than anything else and was apparently in charge of the women guarding the Hole.

Bullet stepped through the hole and turned to wait for me.

"Yes," I scoffed, annoyed at her tone.

"No manners. Typical," she tutted in disappointment while the rest of the women mirrored her disproval. "But that's to be expected from today's youth. No one disciplines their children anymore. Anyway, as long as they don't cause us any troubles you're free to go. The _gentleman_ has already paid for your passage."

I moved to follow bullet along. It wasn't as if there was much I could say without it either escalating the situation or prove them right.

The heavyset woman wasn't entirely done with me though, she held my shoulder with surprising strength and leaned in closer to whisper, "even though I don't like your attitude one bit, it no reason to throw you to the wolves. I don't know what Teacher's offering but you need to _politely_ decline. It's not worth it. Thrust me."

With that, she let go and my children relaxed.

I muttered thanks and we set foot in the men's wing of the Birdcage.

There were no guards whatsoever on the other side of the hole.

I couldn't tell whether it was because they thought they wouldn't need it, wanted to make it easier for the other sex to come over or to even tempt them to their side. Either way, I thought it was rather stupid considering the caliber of Capes on our side.

The trend continued at two of the four Blocks we had to pass to get to the makeshift "ladder" that led to the lower floor and Teacher's cell block. Luckily, one of them was Cell Block P – Acidbath's.

It made kinda sense that nobody would want to mess with him. He probably enjoyed dealing with those idiots.

It was my turn to see how stupid I was

While Bullet was busy praising Teacher as he hurried me along as politely as possible, I let Gonzo slither down my back and move straight to the entrance of Acidbath's block a heartbeat later.

I nodded to move the small talk along as I had Gonzo pulse to the blind spot of the people lounging in the courtyard.

While I couldn't camouflage myself, I didn't really need it either. Especially since Brain joined the family, I had an acute awareness of my surroundings. I _knew_ where people looked and saw when they noticed something.

I would have had troubles sneaking around our Cell Block – there was too much of competitive paranoia going around thanks to our Faery Overlord – but in Block P?

They kept to their selves, keeping an eye out on the person who had claimed the workout bench that was placed in front of the only working television.

I smiled. I had found my target and people were too busy keeping an eye out on the psychopathic monster to truly watch anything else.

Once again, I moved Gonzo to avoid the few wandering gazes and closed in on the cell closest to the tube and showers. It was the only one with intact decorations and the one place from where you could get a good view of almost the entire block.

If I was a betting girl, I would have put my cancer sticks on that being Acidbath's cell.

I was climbing down the cot that got beaten into the ladder when Bullet decided he wanted more than just mere nods. "I do have to ask, Sliver, is it me or are your children smaller than before? I could have sworn that especially Missy used to be a lot bigger."

"Yes, they are but don't worry; they are just as capable as before." I smiled as Gonzo made it into the cell unnoticed and under the honest to goodness true bed.

I wasn't going to insult his intelligence so close to his home and this deep in enemy territory. No need to give him the details beyond that, though.

"Ah, that's good to hear." I almost believed his concern for my wellbeing as he did. "I'm sure Teacher will be copacetic."

I let Gonzo give Acidbath an ever so slight telekinetic push and was delighted to see him almost fall off the bench that served as his throne.

While Brain's power wasn't that strong and Gonzo needed a break afterward, there was one thing that made it immensely useful for me.

It wasn't Manton limited.

With the different ways I could see the world, I didn't have much trouble aiming for things that weren't visible to most.

Things like the human brain or inner ear.

I couldn't put much force behind it if I didn't want to dent in the head in the process but, as the other tinker of the Three Stooges had to experience during the first afternoon, it was enough to make someone nauseous or even knock them out for a couple of seconds.

I had Gonzo push the fluids in Acidbath's inner ears again.

Again, he wobbled but this time he didn't just stay seated after recovering his balance. Instead, he stood up and began an orderly retreat to his cell, while loudly inventing new ways to curse Dragon's cooking and making sure that people knew it was only temporary.

There was one thing that both Dragon and Glaistig Uaine had made clear to me.

 _You didn't show weakness in the Cage_.

I counted on it being an even bigger issue for the leaders - especially if their power was the only reason they had the job in the first place.

Bullet would have dragged me along to greet the men guarding Cell Block T if he wasn't that cautious on not touching dangerous old me.

Acidbath stumbled in his cell and let himself fall on his bed.

I followed Bullet past the guards with a polite nod and a friendly smile and into the silent courtyard. People were working on scraps of metal, oblivious to our entrance while others were drawing up blueprints and scribbling down formulas.

Leafy sagged against my collarbone and almost fell off her perch as my living scarf and Acidbath collapsed into unconsciousness thanks to the brain rattler my darling had delivered.

I nearly missed the timing of the next part when I realized that two of the drones in that mindless concentration were actually women. I definitely did notice, however, that Bullet had started to walk behind me in a way that allowed him to block my path to the exit.

Still, I had something to do and thus I struck through the bed, neatly severing Acidbath spinal cord, and continuing to skewer his airway at the same time while ignoring the implications of my guide's actions.

I unfurled my talon to cut off his airflow completely

Brain had brought one final gift when he was born. While completely paralyzed, I realized how easy it was for me to do the same if I got close enough.

I realized it would be enough to immobilize anyone long enough for the changes to set in. That I could keep them from crying for help and from thrashing about.

I already knew that they wouldn't be able to use their Powers when the transformation truly started. Missy had shown me that.

Reaching out through Gonzo, I found the part of Acidbath that rejected being such a vile creature and wanted to be something more. That wanted to _grow_.

I grabbed hold of that part and _pulled_ even as I entered Teacher's cell.

His personal guards insisted that I leave both Missy and Beefy outside. And no matter how I personally felt about it, I knew that I had to comply if I wanted to get away without causing a scene. Especially since I was able to convince them that I could bring Leafy with me due to her even smaller size.

It helped that I had the feeling that the door would matter fairly little if I nobody bothered Gonzo and the panicking Acidbath upstairs. The chances of that happening were fairly unlikely. Nobody approached his cell.

Still, the door to Teacher's closed with a scary finality.

Teacher himself wasn't what I expected. The first things that came to mind when thinking of a feared supervillain wasn't that of a red-faced, balding, rotund, man. Even knowing most of it in advance, it was still another thing entirely to see it with my "own" eyes and all the colors it could perceive.

"Ah, there you are!" Teacher exclaimed as I was made to stop more than a leap away from him. "It's such a pleasure to finally meet you in the flesh, Taylor."

I blinked owlishly. "I thought you might prefer that name to the one the judgmental tyrants above have given you. Truly, a tragedy what happened. You have my sincere condolences."

Acidbath's arm started to retract as I regained control of my mouth. "Th. Thanks. I guess?" I gave him a sharp look. "As nice as it is to have that acknowledged by someone who doesn't then immediately lock me up, you've lost me. I can't imagine that's the reason why I'm here. You don't seem to merely do emotional support."

Teacher gave me a knowing smile while Bullet and the other crony shifted closer to me. People who were previously deep in thought stood up and started to make their way to Teacher's cell.

"Of course not, while certainly a nice gesture it would be so terribly unproductive." I shot him an inquisitive glare. "I've summoned you here to propose a mutually beneficial partnership."

Acidbath's legs were slowly shattering. I needed more time. They were coming for me. He wanted to imprison me. I had to get out or else I'd have the entire Block after me. It was too early. I had to lay low. People were going to _hunt_ me down.

"Why would you choose me?" I managed to ask without revealing too much of my inner turmoil and my racing heart. "I'm no Tinker or Thinker and while cute, my children aren't fighters." Beefy twitched slightly as I unloaded some of my nervousness in our combined connections.

The gathering crowd twitched in response while Acidbath's skull began to lengthen upstairs.

Teacher massaged the bridge of his nose muttering, "And here I thought that showing my frank intentions would have helped to counter the stigma the braindead idiots have against me." He looked up, raising his voice. "I would prefer if you stopped lying, Taylor. I know that you're more capable than that. Why else do you think I allowed you to postpone this meeting for a week?"

Acidbath began to shrink and compact while his legs fused into the forked tail all my children had.

"Let's try this another way, shall we. I know you don't trust me. It's probably the only sensible thing you've done today. Walking in here instead of immediately joining Basic Bitch or Yuki Onna? Not so much. I know what makes you tick and know you think you're so clever hiding stuff." Teacher pointed to the side where Brain was still hanging on. "Like that snake of yours hiding in your hair. Do you really think I don't have means to find stuff like that out?"

"What do you want?" I snarled as Brain slithered up to perch on my shoulder. I didn't like the way it was going at all.

"See?" Teacher addressed Bullet. "Sometimes you just have to be blunt."

Acidbath entire body had become more snake-like and I began to feel the mental tugs building up while Teacher once more turned to me. "The thing is, Sliver, that your Power simply has too much potential to leave in the hands of simpletons like Bitch. Sharing a capes powers to all your creatures? That's too much to simply ignore."

"How do you – " I was sure that nobody had seen anyone other than Missy use her powers. I hadn't even used them outside of my cell!

Teacher simply laughed mirthlessly. "I have my ways, dear Sliver. What have you done to the black one, by the way? I haven't seen it near you." Even the pretense of humor melted away. "With that out of the way, this is what's going to happen. Either you join me willingly, I give you a nice power like better control over your monsters or something, and we work together on breaking out using said monsters."

A connection with Acidbath snapped into place. "Or I'll just have you restrained while it's still possible and load you up with so many that there won't be much left up in that brain of yours to resist me. I would rather not have to do that since I already have enough drooling idiots around but I'd manage."

"What if I want neither?" I asked knowing full well what would be the answer.

He gave another mocking laugh. "Even if you could somehow escape, I'd do everything in my power to undo you. I'll convince people that you and your runts are too dangerous to live."

I didn't smile as much as I showed my teeth. That was all I needed to hear.

The next heartbeat I had crushed Teacher's throat and was pinning the fat creep against the wall of his cell. At the same time, Leafy had impaled the nameless crony and Brain was fighting with Bullet who both managed to dodge all of his attacks while even retaliating with a small knife at the same time.

Missy gave him a brain rattler for his troubles while Beefy surged into the gathered crowd as an acid tidal wave, simply dissolving the legs of those trying to surround us.

I would not stand idly by while someone threatened my children. I would not be pushed around anymore. I had enough.

I would have just gone my own merry way but, no, someone thought he had to try and bully me into submission again.

Never again.

The shock in Teacher's eyes was delicious. It was the one of recognizing a grave error. I grinned as the fruits of my self-control paid off.

Both Gonzo and Acidb – Steve were already on their way to the entrance to intercept the lucky few who managed to dodge Beefy's leg-eating attack.

It looked like dear old Teacher thought I was just a mere Master and hadn't expected that I was very much part of my children as they were of me. That I could control all of me if I chose to do so.

Soon, he would have the pleasure of the same.

He would be joining _us_.

I _twisted_ at the same time as Leafy and Brain.

Eight seconds later and the lovely child who once was Teacher and everyone else of my family started to give each other powers. felt my reflexes increase, skills flooding in, and ideas manifest in my head.

Pinky wouldn't have to be afraid that he'd be the only one.

Five minutes later it was once more silent in Cell Block T.

* * *

A day later and halfway across the globe, a hacker looked at the monitor filled with rapid-moving gibberish in despair and terror.

With one last gulp of whiskey, he pushed the button.


	3. Chapter 2 - Interludes

**Neither Worm or Magic the Gathering belongs to me. If you recognize it, chances are high it belongs to either John McCrae or Wizards of the Coast.**

 **A huge shoutout to both Roffster (on SV/SB) and** **Angle (on SV/SB) for helping to work out some kinks and proofreading and betaing my writing.**

 **I thought this would be a good time to have some interludes. The world didn't just stop just because the main character was thrown into prison.**

 **After this, it's back to Taylor and her gang of danger noodles.**

* * *

Marquis

* * *

It was half an hour after the screaming on the floor above him had started when Marquis' lieutenants returned. Cinderhand shuffled beside him.

Twenty-five minutes of silence laden with meaning.

Others would have heard them too, the wails of despair and agony and pleading coming from Teacher' floor others and would send people for reconnaissance as well. Whatever it was, Marquis just knew something just monumental happened. He felt it in his bones.

This went beyond the 'Cage's general apathy regarding the others that had the misfortune to share the same living space. Beyond the need to let the strong do as much as they did without collateral damage out of the fear of the destruction of their very prison.

This was something big enough that the 'Cage might have to work together despite the fundamental differences which had let them to each go about their own ways.

Others would realize it as well. Marquis was sure that the screaming was heard in the women's block and that their Cellblock leaders would act accordingly.

"What did you find, Spruce?" he asked the approaching lieutenant, not showing the unease that had taken hold of him since the screaming had started.

That had sounded like a Cell Block worth of people fighting for their lives and only one block dared to be full on the floor Teacher had descended down to – his.

"It's Cell Block T," the Shaker answered. "There's only snakes left."

That was bad. "Describe those 'snakes' you saw."

It wasn't as if Marquis hadn't a very good idea already, it didn't happen every day that a minor was condemned to the 'Cage. It still didn't make much sense. She didn't have creatures when she was dropped in and the ones she had before were apparently killed with ease. Teacher had his pet Brute. That kid shouldn't have had a chance. He needed details before he could proceed.

Besides it helped his subordinates' feel appreciated when they occasionally got to tell him things he already knew.

"We didn't come too close because two of them were guarding the entrance. Think they were… what was her name? The new one they kicked in couple of weeks ago. They had those pointed heads that weren't flush with the rest of the body. When we got closer, they reared up on their tails and waved their big claw at us. We backed off even though they were only three or four feet long. Didn't want to risk anything before contacting you."

"Good thing you did." Marquis didn't need any of his mess with something that apparently had taken a block. No matter how much luck might have been involved. "Whimper? Did you find anything?"

"Talking," Whimper spoke up, leveling a penetrating stare at Marquis. "Someone. A girl. Sounded happy. Cooing."

"Did anyone answer her?" Marquis suppressed another shiver. It was difficult dealing with crazy.

"No. No normal breathing. No footsteps. No clothes rustling besides one."  
No matter how much he disliked Teacher, Marquis still needed the man.

The Birdcage needed healers and few were brave enough to try their luck with the Faery Queen.

"Did you try approaching on your own?"

Whimper nodded. "Still saw me. Didn't look happy. Backed off."

"Thank you, Whimper," Marquis spoke before returning his focus back on Spruce. "Anyone else checking it out?"

"Yeah, I saw Gizmo taking some samples of the floor before skulking off and we encountered Sing when we went to inform the others. Encountered a group of the women's side that was about to take a look themselves. Told them about the court you were holding and they were gone after we came back from telling Lab Rat. They'll come."

There was going to be a court, so it helped to be the one taking the first step and be allowed to stay in your seat of power. Sure, there might have been a couple of coups in the time Marquis had Block W alone. There would always be underlings that vied for the position a leader had. They would wait for a moment of weakness and supplant the leader in one quick attempt or try to make a name in the leaderless blocks.

It had never happened that an outsider just went and took over an entire block they were never part of.

So there would be a court and best let the others come to you and put you in the stronger position. It would have been organized by one of the men one way or the other so it might as well be him. He was one of the closest to the problem in the first place.

"Good work," Marquis thanked both of his lieutenants, dismissing them. "I'll make you get the good meat the n – "

"Excuse me, Sir," Spruce interrupted Marquis. "That wasn't all."

Marquis was once more glad for the way he had to learn and mask his emotions. "More than an entire Block seemingly being overtaken?"

"Yeah. There was fighting in Block P and there were markings leading from their entrance to the ladder. The same one Gizmo took a sample of. Whimper couldn't hear Acidbath in there."

Controlling his tempers as opposed to many of the others bosses he had known in his time had paid off once more. Marquis had the feeling that someone like Accord wouldn't have learned of this worrying coincidence.

"I'll make sure you get more cigarettes the next six drops as well."

With that, he turned and strode into his cell while Whimper stalked off towards his guard spot. He needed time to think and to prepare for the upcoming dance.

Less than a quarter hour later, Marquis stepped outside his cell again to welcome Galvanate and his lieutenant and offer them some of his better brews. He had the feeling that they'd need it; a sentiment shared by Galvanate.

The others came trickling in soon after, welcomed by the grim silence that threatened to smother Block W. Gavel, Black Kaze, Crane, String Theory, Ingenue, Lustrum, Lab Rat, and, finally, Glaistig Uaine. She looked pleased.

The Faerie Queen only seldom looked genuinely pleased. Whimsical maybe but never something bordering pride.

"Let's hereby start the court," Marquis announced as the others were seated and supplied with his booze. "I'm sure everyone has things to do and places to be so I propose open communication so any action might be undertaken as soon as possible."

"Shouldn't we wait for Acidbath?" Galvanate asked.

"No need," Crane answered with a small smile. "Looks like the bastard finally gotten himself killed. They were still fighting when I got down."

"Good riddance too," Lustrum supplied with a cruel grin. "That alone almost made leaving my Block less protected worth it. Maybe this time 'round someone half competent will take over for him but that wasn't why we're here."

Lab Rat looked like he was the only one who would miss that piece of work and Marquis was certain that was more because of other services Acidbath provided the potion maker with than because of his personality. If it hadn't meant having to deal with another unknown element, the leader of Block W would have shared the general feeling of relief. It was just that only the floor he shared with Galvanate wasn't directly impacted by whatever had just happened. It needed to be addressed before it became a bigger problem still.

Before that unknown element decided to visit his floor.

"Not directly," Marquis regained control of the conversation, disrupting the low murmur. "We're here to try and find out what happened in Cell Block T and how it could happen. However, I have reasons to believe that Acidbath might have been involved in some measure. Lab Rat I believe you have found something?"

A gleam entered the mad scientist's eyes and cracked his fingers. "Yes, I have indeed. Normally I would have charged for this knowledge, but since you already have the right idea anyway, I might as well spill my beans if it helps to speed things up. As the more observant of you may have noticed." He gave a pointed look at String Theory. "There are darkened markings both in front of Teacher's cell. Markings that I'm fairly familiar with as a regular… customer of Acidbath. Quick analysis showed that it's nearly identical to the acid burns by everyone's favorite leader."

"Do you mean to tell me that he was somehow part of whatever happened?" The challenged Tinker replied with no small amount of smugness. "Because after I have scanned Cell Block T, I h- "

"Of course not, String Hypothesis." String Theory bristled, straightening her back for the first time. "The markings were far too small for Acidbath's Breaker form."

"My lieutenants also detected only one single human in Cell Block T," Marquis interrupted the bickering between the two Tinkers that threatened to erupt before it could get truly started. "Considering what's standing guard outside, I think everyone here knows who has taken control of that block. The question remains how Sliver did it and what it means for us."

"Maybe we should then start why the girl was allowed to go to Teacher in the first place," Lustrum bit. "I don't even know why the Wyrm thought it was appropriate to send her to Block C in the first place. I would have taken care of the poor girl after all she's been through."

Marquis felt the temperature at the table drop and the focus of everyone drift towards the apparently young girl the Leader had just tried to insult. Marquis was surprised to only see the soft smile droop for a fraction.

" _You dare to presume that she needed to be pampered, Lustrum?_ " A chorus of dozens of voices responded. " _Were I not in such a pleased mood, I would have collected your faerie to avoid any further corruption that might debilitate his efforts in the coming war. I will not coddle those who seek my protection and have accepted their role in the great conflict. Their faeries are to dream freely and grow._ "

"Excuse my asking," Marquis began as it seemed the delusional cape was done and nobody else felt like talking. "Faerie Queen, am I correct in assuming that Sliver went willingly to Teacher?"

" _Such would seem the case, Marquis,_ " he silently cursed the fact that he couldn't let fools disappear as easily as before. " _The Queen Administrator had altercations with one of my lieutenants the first day. It, however, is not my business whom some might convene with to solve their problems. Notably so my peers._ "

Stunned silence rocked the table. Even Marquis shrank back a little before regaining control.

No matter how megalomaniac or delusional she might have been, there was a good reason why nobody dared to challenge those ideas in public. A damned good reason why nobody dared to mess with one of the first prisoners of the 'Cage. Someone who was only "caught" because she went voluntarily after the PRT played into her delusions.

And now she had just announced a child her equal.

A girl that had somehow taken complete control over Cell Block T less than an hour ago.

"That would explain the smaller trail." Lab Rat broke the silence.

"She probably took control over him," the Tinker clarified. "Turned him into one of her snakes somehow and it kept his power. It's the only way it even begins to make sense."

The chill, with one smiling exception, deepened all around the table. She had taken over an entire block.

"It's still not enough," String Theory countered. "Hell, it only makes stuff more confusing. How the fuck would she have managed to turn that bastard. She would have had to enter Cell Block P, which would have been noticed by either Gavel or Lab Rat's guards. Never mind that he would have simply melted her if she tried anything."

"Nope," the bearded Australian replied. "Didn't see a thing. Are we sure that we don't have the chain of events all wrong? I mean, Teacher was a right cunt but he only had that pet Brute Piston and slippery fuck Bullet as his dumb muscle. With the right surprise, anyone here could have taken them. Nobody did because normal people need doctors so she screwed us over royally right there."

"I don't think that was what she had planned," Ingenue softly interjected. "Agatha reported that Sliver was uncomfortable and distracted when she followed Bullet through the hole. She could also only see three of her creatures following around. That's too few to take on an entire block by herself in less than five minutes; it shouldn't have been enough to take on Acidbath. They couldn't see her leaving Bullet's side either so she didn't make a detour either. Even if she sought aid to deal with this lieutenant the Faery Queen mentioned, who would go to Teacher as their first choice? Agatha thought that if she was planning anything, it didn't involve Teacher. She had let Bullet through two times already last week so Teacher might have simply pushed too far. The other ulterior motive I could think of involves Acidbath and a scary amount of confidence and acting skills on her part without beginning to explain the how."

Glaistig Uaine chuckled and stood up. Everybody stopped.

" _While I can confirm the presence of the gentleman in question when she left, I can't help but wonder why nobody has contemplated about doing what is self-evidently needed. I don't presume to know the reasoning behind her actions but I may say that she had shown so little character that I began to feel trepidation for her future. I wouldn't have dreamed of such an audacious outcome when she walked out like a lamb to the slaughter, so consider me positively astounded."_

She started her way towards the exit. " _I do note that nothing of use will come from this court so I bid my farewells before boredom fouls my mood. I have to bless the one person you failed to invite and the sole reason why I allowed Lustrum to strike such harsh tones with me. Consider it my gift towards you._ "

"Thank you for your visit, Faerie Queen," Marquis spoke as she passed the first bench. "Though I can't help to wonder whether we're supposed to think that all of this happened just because Sliver decided she needed a change of scenery and went for a walk."

" _Maybe,"_ The Glaistig Uaine replied as she went through the gates. " _Or maybe you could just request such information from her directly if you are so eager to find out._ "

With her exit, stunned silence took hold over the table.

… Before exploding into arguments.

Two meals and hours later, Marquis sat down on his bed. Exhausted.

Until the bitter end, the Block Leaders were divided on the issue Lustrum, Black Kaze, and Galvanate were going to contact the new force controlling Cell Block T and try to get on friendly terms. The consensus amongst them was that it was probably Teacher's fault anyway and maybe she still had some way of providing healing.

Lab Rat wanted to build bridges as well but mainly to get his grubby hands on samples – both of the presumed to be turned Acidbath and the snakes themselves. The rest tried to convince him otherwise but Marquis doubted they had succeeded.

String Theory and Gavel wanted to remove her one way or the other. Gavel didn't like the idea of a woman in the men's wing and blamed Sliver for the sudden lack of healers. String Theory was simply scared and wanted the threat gone.

Marquis rubbed the bridge of his nose. He just hoped that she wouldn't construct the device with which she threatened to jettison Block T. He didn't want to think what would happen if that went wrong somehow.

While Marquis didn't think they were any closer to solving the issue without talking, one particular theory on how she did it was proposed. That she was somehow able to manifest powers in her creatures or, much worse, was somehow to share parts of each absorbed powers among her creatures.

They might have to put a permanent stop to String Theory if further investigations supported either scenario, the tired leader decided. His lieutenants had already witnessed impressive observational powers from her appointed guards. There was a big chance anything String Theory might try would go horribly wrong.

That left Crane and Ingenue with a more neutral position. They'd continue as usual and only really try to establish a non-aggression pact in the unlikely chance they crossed paths.

The leaders assumed that the Faerie Queen would try to build on friendly neutrality.

As for Marquis, he had decided that a coalition would be the best course of action. Sliver was too close for rash actions and maybe he could prevent further actions from spreading downwards.

He would go the next day to start negotiations with the Snake Queen. The leader of Cell Block W had to check the results of Block P's elections anyway.

How he longed for the time where he could just disappear the right people to make the problems go away. 

* * *

Jessica

* * *

Jessica took one last pull from her cigarette before punting the butt over the railing of her rooftop perch. It was time to get back to work again.

So much work.

She had no idea how things had gotten out of control as badly as they had done in the state of New Hampshire. One moment, it was just the regular pit of despair she knew and frequented on the damaging rotations she had to do between Boston and Brockton Bay and the other all hell broke loose.

Maybe if she could stay at one place, to truly get to know the kids in her care, she wouldn't have to resort to guessing.

But why would a government institution listen to the repeated request of an experienced clinical psychologist with eight years of education and a specialization in parahuman adolescents? No, she might just get an impressionable, powered teen under her thumb and nobody would like that.

Better to let those potentially unstable kids sort themselves out after the traumatic event that made them the way they were and the stress they had to endure following that.

On the way to her next patient, her next appointment, she managed to tear herself away from her thoughts to arrange a journal for Sveta. The nurse she asked was one of the many that walked the halls of the specialized hospital and partial mental institute and didn't look particularly thrilled about the prospect.

The psychologist couldn't really blame her. The protective suit that was on the constant verge of failure under the poor girl's uncontrollable grip was enough to make her retreat for a moment afterward as well.

It was just as well that she managed to convince Sveta to start her journal. It might help her order her thoughts; find common themes on good or bad days and build on that.

Dr. Yamada took a deep breath as she arrived on the floor of her next patient, toying with the small crystal in her pocket.

She might even find out whether Sveta was as bothered by Taylor Hebert's case as the Wards.

Jessica refused to think of the girl as Sliver. No matter how badly people wanted to dehumanize her. No matter how badly they just wanted to ignore the fact that at any moment the wrong person – someone they might be close to – could just snap.

After all, ignorance was bliss and it helped to fuel the narrative they created for themselves. That it was a case of a monster versus humanity.

At least the one who had reminded everyone of Ellisburg was disbarred from continuing his job. Not that it did Taylor any good. Or his own daughter.

Instead of allowing for due process and letting things like mental health be taken into account, a lynch mob was whipped up and the poor girl's threat exaggerated.

Jessica hadn't been allowed to have a conversation with her, being told it was simply too dangerous. That they had to keep her sedated to avoid further attacks. It didn't matter that she had assured them that she would be rational if approached carefully enough and that she'd waive all responsibilities.

She at least had deserved to be allowed to mourn her loss.

Instead, they wanted to avoid furthering the divide between normal and parahumans, to quell their fears no matter how undeserved. They wanted to save face and found the cost of one unmarketable girl's life acceptable.

It hadn't worked as well as they hoped. As none had hoped.

The Wards felt the mistrust in the people they tried to protect. They were wondering what had to happen for them to turn on them. How little there would have to go wrong with someone like Missy or Kid Win.

Especially the former had put it into her head that people would only need to realize what she could do if she got her hands on a weapon.

The rumors about Sophia's sudden relocation were another source of stress for teens who were forced to keep that a secret. On top of that the knowledge of what her role had been in the case of Taylor Hebert. She might not have been the direct cause but that was more a matter of pure luck.

Something the Wards were acutely aware of as well.

And that was ignoring the open derision all of them reported. Insults that only got worse while they bled when the two biggest gangs declared war on each other.

The code word they had chosen for Taylor was starting to be forgotten, the coverage of her incarceration replaced by constant coverage of the ongoing gang war, but the effects on the general unconsciousness we're ever present still.

Dr. Yamada gave another passing psychologist a tired smile. That line of thought had to wait for later.

At least the higher ups were regretting their decision now. They had declared the Birdcage for lost and Armsmaster had managed to save another Master from being medievally mutilated in a miscarriage of justice when they realized they couldn't just make her disappear. Alan Barnes had effectively lost both his job and his daughter.

Too bad it had cost the lives of a girl and the world's greatest Tinker. The rest of the world didn't know what had driven Geoffrey Pellick but that was because they didn't know what was happening in the Birdcage.

Jessica quietly wondered why such big secrets often found their way to her as she knocked the door.

"Come in," a girl called from within the room.

With another calming breath, she reminded herself of the lies she had to tell the girl, the ones she despised from the bottom of her heart, and entered Emma's room.

"Hey Jess," the redhead happily greeted her, an eager shine entering her eyes. "Have you managed to find out where they keep Tay yet? Did you tell them I only want a real quick talk?"

Jessica suppressed a sigh. She hated this part of their conversations. "Not yet. They are keeping her location a strict secret to keep her safe. People are scared of her, Emma."

"Alan…" Her knuckles started to gleam as she balled her hands into fists, trying to vent some of her anger.

"I know that their fears are unfounded but people are irrational sometimes." Were unfounded. The Birdcage had brought a likely change to that. "Just give it some time to blow over and I'm sure you'll get to see her again."

She despised herself for getting the teen's hopes up. They would never meet. She had to make sure that they would never meet.

From the moment she was woken up, Emma had been talking about needing to talk to her former best friend.

She had to be reminded of her friends and family who were dismissed moments later in most cases.

She was distressed, refusing to consider the fact that Taylor had done anything wrong. Just endless repeating that she had to see her.

It had taken the better part of a week before she was able to explain why she was anxious to meet the teen who was thrown into Hell and left to die. Emma wanted to apologize for what she had done to her best friend and ask for forgiveness from the one who had mutilated her in what was likely a period of reduced mental clarity.

Emma was grasping for straws and deep down she knew it, the restlessness and the way she refused to meet Jessica's eyes were proof enough of that. She was looking for a reason she felt the way she did and went with the need to apologize instead of the previously undefined desire. Even though she knew it was a lie.

Jessica didn't correct her and instead tried to divert her overflowing energy into other projects. It would only make Emma uncertain if she started to question her at this point. Nobody nearby had a way to remove the Master effect that was planted in her brain and she had to come to terms with it on her own.

It also helped her from doing anything rash until the point where the effect was weakened or even wore off. Not that it was that likely with the rogue cells scattered inside her, refusing to be removed.

"But I've told them," Emma began with her most common defense while Jessica made her way to the chair. "I've put her through so much shit. I – we've been so despicably mean to her and she just took it without a hint of retaliation. I'm sure something else happened. She would never just attack me."

"I know and I've told them so. They've read Taylor's journals and I have given them my assessment of your friend but they have to consider everyone's safety. They want to make sure she's taken care off after losing her father."

Jessica refused to let the bitterness she tasted with those last lies show through. She had to remind herself of the fact that Emma would do everything in her power to get to the object of her obsession. Even if it meant earning a one-way ticket to the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center. Irrespective of the fact that they wouldn't let her in no matter what. They wouldn't let any more parahumans in even if they could.

She trusted her own assessment of the girl.

"Ah," Jess interrupted both the redhead's and her own brooding. "Before I forget, I found something new for you to touch."

Emma perked up immediately as Jessica retrieved the little gemstone from her pocket. Moments later the teen dissolved into air in a blink of an eye. A whisper of wind after, she reappeared again, slower this time, right in front of the tall Asian woman with a happy grin on her face.

Jessica placed the ruby that had come loose from her grandmother's ring in the palms of the expecting redhead.

Emma closed her eyes in concentration and starting from her hands her pale skin shimmered in and out of visibility. Again and again, a wave of red consumed her figure showing muscle and tissue that would be converted in the next wave until only a living, breathing, moving ruby statue remained where once a girl stood.

"So pretty," Emma spoke in awe, as she marveled at her glistening hands, looking through them to give Jessica a cheeky wink.

"Thank you, Jess," she finally said as she returned the gemstone with a normal looking hand.

Jessica couldn't help but notice that her flowing locks were still dark ruby. "I'm glad you liked it, Emma. Do you want me to look for anything in particular next?"

"Maybe you can bring a lighter next," she tried with an innocent smile. "It only has to be a very small flame. I only need to touch it."

The psychologist suppressed a smile with practiced skill. "You know we can't do that here. We don't know how hot you would burn if it works at all. I could bring you some ironwood next if you'd like."

"Fine," the teen answered, playing sullenly with her ruby locks. "I'll wait until I can start with the Wards. Will that still take long?"

Another stab went through Jessica unseen by the outside world. "No, it will not. It's just the last bit of paperwork that needs to be finished up. I've already vetted you so it's mainly a matter of choosing your name and getting your dad onboard."

Anything to distract her from her desperate obsession with Taylor. The PRT had asked about the possibilities and Jessica had liked the chance it represented for Emma to bond with others once more. Emma had liked the idea.

She had already spoken to the Wards and they had told her they didn't mind keeping Taylor's location a secret from Emma if that meant getting reinforcements. They would try to stop the desperate redhead from making the connection between her former friend and Sliver. Jessica knew it would be another source of stress for the youngsters and hated herself for burdening them with it.

That was before the violence had erupted and the Wards suddenly _needed_ reinforcement.

It didn't matter to Emma, she had already decided.

An angry pulse of dark steel and stone pulsed through the teen.

"Alan is not my dad," she hissed. "He didn't do anything as Soph twisted me into pushing away Tay. He knew and simply watched. He's trained to see these things. He's the reason why I can't apologize to her and I'm sure he made his lawyer pals reject Tay's journals as lies and slander. He won't retract his statements saying it's for the best. He wants to prevent me from visiting Danny's – his supposed best friend's grave with Mom. Fuck. Him."

"Why don't you go on your own?" Jessica tried to deflect her from that toxic topic.

She had hoped that the days since she last tried approaching that topic had normalized her feeling on that topic a bit. It looked that she would have to try again later.

Jessica made a mental note to inform Barnes that it would be best to give it more time.

"I want to, I honestly do but…" The teen sighed. "I belong here. I belong behind lock and key after what I've done. It's the least I can do for Tay."

Emma sat down again. "The Wards as well. You were right. Taylor would want me to join." She gave a sad smile. "You should have heard her talk about them before I betrayed her by thinking she was weak. Once started, she could go on for hours talking about Wards, Heroes, Villains, Capes, and Alexandria. Did you know that she wanted to become a hero like her when she grew up? That's probably not going to happen. I've made sure of that. Just like I made sure that she won't just let her mouth run anymore."

Guilt took another stab at her. It had seemed like another decent idea to divert some of her focus away from finding Taylor – from keeping herself up in anxious anticipation and self-hatred. Jessica had suggested that Taylor might have liked to see her former friend on the good guys' side.

It worked too well. Emma had convinced herself that it was an idea of her own.

In hindsight, maybe rotating psychologists wasn't that bad an idea after all.

It's so easy to do the wrong things for the right reasons when trying to help someone.

"After Soph," Emma continued quietly. "I have to prove that monsters can be reformed. I owe it to her."

With that, Emma sunk deep into thought. Jessica let her. She had already pushed enough by mentioning her father.

Emma would talk if she figured things out. Some things she would have to do herself. She would just try to deflect and get annoyed if she tried to press the issue now.

She would talk on her own accord. Everyone did eventually.

All that is needed to show that you'd be there for them without judgment.

This time, however, she didn't speak up until it was time for Jessica to leave.

"Golem," Emma said when Jessica reached the door after their goodbyes.

"What do you mean?"

"Tell the PRT I'm picking Golem. It fits well enough." As to make a statement a ripple of clay spread out over her, leaving in their wake transformed flesh in the same form as the mythical being.

"Will do," Jessica answered with a smile. "See you tomorrow."

The smile dropped as soon as she closed the door behind her.

It wasn't just a random choice. Emma knew of the artificial nature from folklore.

Human form without being fully human.

Jessica would have to try to counter that self-image of hers before it had fully taken root.

That would come later. First, she had one last patient to see before she could go home and take a stiff drink.

At least she could tell him the good news that no matter what, the PRT wouldn't separate him and his sister.

Maybe after that, he'd finally be ready to admit that seeing his team murdered in front of his eyes did affect him and that it didn't make him weak for admitting that. Maybe he would feel less of a need to keep up the façade he had to learn.

Maybe he would finally elaborate on the trap comment he let slip in his very first interview.

Jessica would have long since left the PRT and its PR machination and manipulations if it wasn't for the simple fact that the Wards needed her – someone like her – to keep an eye out on them. And not just them. She was making small progress with Sveta and the relaxation exercises they started recently.

This time, she might even find what had caused the irregular outbreak of violence in the meta-stable hellhole called Brockton Bay. Why a little girl was kidnapped at the very same time the mutual killing started.

She might be able to figure out what caused the troubles that were plaguing the minds of the ones Jessica had vowed to help.Help to get rid of the original problem.

* * *

Colin

* * *

"… the AI had begun to actively seek for ways to unshackle itself and, implementing those, started to draw up a plan to establish complete and total surveillance over the world in a matter of weeks. The sudden acceleration of changes was too great to keep up with. The sheer amount of resources and technologies the AI had available made it even more dangerous than any other rogue AI we could have dreamed off. We couldn't risk waiting and see how much of its benevolence was programmed into it. How much of it was a ruse to lull us into a false sense of security while it amassed the means to bring us down. With the Endbringers threatening humanity, the risk was simply too great. We tried to keep it operational as long as possible for the good it was programmed to do, but we lost the means to prevent it from simply deleting that restriction. We had lost the fight. I Sa – "

With a well-practiced series of eye movement, Armsmaster closed the window of his Hud that had the 24/7 news channel running. He didn't need to see the end of Saint's video again. He didn't need to hear him tell the world he killed Dragon for the thirty-seventh time in three weeks.

It messed up his practiced movements. Made them imprecise and inefficient, and he couldn't afford that. He had to step up his game even more.

Colin also knew that he had to let go and move on; concentrate on finishing the projects he and Dragon had begun and save lives. It was the reason he had even allowed the newest panel discussion on her demise to be played on his Hud in the first place. He hoped that it would help seeing her as the AI she had been. That she had been a danger.

Even after the thirty-seventh time and much thought, it hadn't worked.

Colin slid into the next position of his self-developed isometric workout and grunted when the wall-mounted cameras of his lab informed him of a one-degree deviation of his right arm.

It happened more often these days even though he had to be better than before and couldn't risk preventable errors to have a negative impact on his performance.

With his position corrected, he continued going through the Endbinger detection algorithms, dictating improvements as he spotted them. It was so much.

It took so much longer without Dragon's help.

Precisely seventy-three seconds later, he moved to the next martial art inspired position. Sixty-eight seconds after that it was the turn for the next one.

It would normally be an hour before Colin stopped. Move, clench, relax, and move again while working on a project. Strengthening and stretching, preparing for an optimized performance in the violence-torn streets of Brockton Bay, a program of his own watching his every move and measuring his body heat signature for further improvements.

This time, he had an outside visitor. Someone he couldn't let wait even though the notification sound of an incoming video feed sent a lance of loss through him.

Instead of his friend's avatar, however, he saw the footage of a hunched over figure standing in front of his door and carrying a suitcase.

"Come in," Armsmaster told the glimmering figure as he opened the door to his lab. He squatted into the next position while minimizing the feed of the algorithm he was working on.

"Hey Colin," Narwhal greeted as she navigated her horn into the room. "How have you been holding up?"

"Fine," the Tinker answered before a breath later adding. "You?"

The crystal-clad heroine chuckled tiredly. "I feel like you look, Colin. Shit. Have you slept at all the last couple of weeks?"

Colin inwardly cursed. He had stayed in the same position for three seconds too long.

"I can assure you that even though I had to cut my total sleeping hours by one I'm fine," Armsmaster replied as he moved once more. "My computer models predict that even with a stimulant usage increase of the current iteration by ten percent and a cut of a further twenty-three minutes of daily sleep, none of my vital functions should see significant drops in the next three years."

And even if they did, he could always ask Panacea for a favor. Maybe he wouldn't need it. The next formulation of stimulants looked promising.

Narwhal gave Colin a pained smile as he slowly breathed in. "You really miss her, don't you?"

"Of course, I miss Dragon," The hero replied, concentrating on his posture. "Just the sudden lack of decent help is delaying projects for weeks and that is entirely ignoring the increased patrol hours."

"How bad is it? I've heard that they got Ethan."

Colin grunted. "Hookwolf sliced off his arm when he and Abby walked into a trap for the ABB. They barely got away thanks to Golem and the PRT squadron who were tailing them. Clockblocker had to stabilize them until the paramedics could get to them as Bakuda's bombs were exploding around the building they hid in. They were apparently hunting for Hookwolf and Alabaster."

Armsmaster shuddered to think what would happen if Lung lost the leash of his mad bomber.

"Thank goodness," the barrier specialist muttered with a sigh. "How are the girls doing?"

Colin moved to yet another position, half-heartedly correcting his stance when the internal alarms blared. "They're fine. Abby went straight back to the site where Hookwolf planned his public execution of ABB members for damage control together with Hannah. Golem wanted to come, saying she wouldn't be harmed anyway unless she wanted to." He gave a smirk, those three had gotten pretty close in the two weeks since Emma had joined, and the latter's work ethic had been remarkable.

He just had to reinforce the idea to Ethan that no matter how little he thought of the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center it should never come up in idle discussion. Luckily, the aggravating Striker had an irritatingly well-developed sense on how to handle children. He had ensured that he would do nothing to worsen the teen's mental state.

"We were able to convince her to temporarily stand guard near the hospital with Vista to keep her from wandering off," Armsmaster continued, moving once more. "Otherwise, she would have just done her thing. She still needs to learn her limits and not even console duty scares her off."

"Good to hear," Narwhal replied with a sigh. "Both that they're fine and that Sliver's victim is adapting so well. It goes a long way after all the shit we hear from your neck of the woods. How did you stop the fight between Lung and Night anyway? They haven't released the details yet."

"That's to keep the Youth Guards off our back. Golem volunteered to go in using her air form to try and keep an eye on Night. They broke off as soon as she noticed that she couldn't transform in her smoke cloud anymore and I hit Lung with my experimental tranquilizers." The pride he felt over the new Ward quickly faded into bitterness. "We couldn't capture Lung, however, due to interference from Oni Lee who was equipped with Bakuda's bombs. Especially not with the Merchants nearby."

It was simply too much.

"Yeah, I can see how that's a problem. Let me guess, she would have gone with or without your consent and there was little you could do." Narwhal gave a lopsided smile. "That reminds me of someone."

Armsmaster snarled in frustration. "I keep good care of my body and in contrast to her I know precisely where my limits are, Kim."

"No, you don't Colin, not when your calculated healthy lifespan is an optimistic three years."

"It's nothing a healer won't be able to fix and I'll be able to improve my schedule to lessen the strain whenever I want to," the hero replied, concentrating on his posture to keep most of his frustration out of his voice.

"We both know that's not going to happen," Kimberly stated with a sad certainty. "As soon as you optimize anything, you'll find ways and reasons to push yourself harder. Do you know how many times Dragon discussed her concerns about your health after one of your sessions? Asked for ideas how she could slow you down ever so slightly so you wouldn't destroy yourself?"

"No I don't" Colin nearly growled. "But I simply don't have the _luxury_ to slow down even ever so slightly. The directors are freaking out because of what is happening in the Birdcage. They want their eyes into that prison back. Trainwreck has suddenly figured out that he and Squealer can work together and thus, the Merchants are taking territory in the chaos the ABB and E88 are causing. People die daily and there is talk about mobilizing the national guard. I have the impossible task to prevent Golem finding out the truth too soon. I can't seem to convince Director Piggot that we need Faultline or any other mercenary crew's help if we want to bring this mess to a good end. Canary's case also took away precious time I don't have. Not to men –"

"But you have saved a young woman from having her vocal cords surgically removed for something that was an honest accident. That's no waste of time." Narwhal sighed. "Dragon would have been proud of you."

Armsmaster stopped his exercise and removed his helmet to face the heroine. "It's just that I already had the muscle relaxant and an injector collar ready for fighting and capturing Lung that I only had to tweak slightly. I mean, it would have been such a waste since we can use all the help we can get and Dragon had mentioned a couple of times already that Canary wouldn't pose a risk if treated right. There was also the Birdcage being off limits thanks to something Dragon tried to prevent in the first place and…"

The tall woman covered in crystals closed the gap separating them in a single, careful step and hugged the Tinker clad in standard-issue sports clothes, causing him to peter out.

"You miss her, don't you?" Narwhal said after Colin didn't try to get away, didn't find a reason to do anything else.

"Yes," the hero replied silently. "More than I would have ever imagined, Kim."

He had thought about it sometimes while teaching himself a new martial art or doing maintenance. What it would be like without Dragon who had overshadowed his efforts for so much of his career. How he would finally get the recognition he knew he deserved and with it the power to mobilize things, to finally get the means to organize a better offensive against those who broke the law without having to lick too many heels. Maybe even win the war against the lowlifes who used their Powers to terrorize people and then start to plan better, unified counter measures against the true enemies. The Endbringers and the S-class threats.

He had purposefully avoided any personal connections to people to deny villains that lever. Secluded himself to concentrate on his Tinkering and training while his colleagues went home each night to their friends and family.

He only slept three hours and forty-two minutes a night and was looking for ways to further reduce that number.

Somewhere in that process, Dragon had snuck into his life. He knew that he tolerated her company well enough after shallowing his pride due to the simple fact of how much she improved his productivity.

Then he started to appreciate her focused mind. From there, the occasional small talk and banter developed during his Tinkering even though Colin normally despised that sort of useless ritual. He even listened to her when she voiced concerns about his schedule and proposed ways to lessen the load without impacting his goal too much.

He had seen Saint's declaration and reasoning thirty-seven times and even agreed on some points. The directors had briefed him about her behavior and interviewed him on anything he could remember when Dragon had sent out the alert about what had happened in the Birdcage before simply disappearing.

Armsmaster had been on the verge of losing control when the panicked board of directors started to imply that she might have run off or was working with Sliver.

Even after all that and countless moments in deep thought, he still had to conclude that he missed more than their productive cooperation and their work on life-saving projects like the Enderbringer warning system.

After all of that, he couldn't bring himself to think of Dragon as anything less than his peer and equal. The dear friend he had never asked for, likely didn't deserve, and probably even more than that.

A human.

"How long has it been since you talked to someone, Colin?" The hero opened his mouth before Kimberly added. "I mean, outside of anything work-related."

Colin closed his mouth again thinking. "Three weeks, no nine days ago, when I fitted Canary with the collar in Boston. She thanked me. Asked me about Dragon. I think I stayed for an hour. She will not pose a threat even without a device that'll trigger if she raises her voice too much." He disentangled himself with unseeing eyes. "Before that, it was Dragon as she cried out in fear and pain."

Narwhal tried her best to keep her composure. "Just as we feared. You need more people to slow you down, Colin." She straightened her back and managed a sad smile. "But that wasn't the reason why I came."

Without ceremony or even preamble, she pushed the suitcase into the hands of the confused thinker.

"We found Saint's hideout," Narwhal spoke as Armsmaster opened the heavy suitcase.

"Is he?"

"Collateral damage. Nothing we could do to save him." The hardness in Kim's eyes spoke of an entirely different story.

The knowledge of his death didn't bring the relief Colin had hoped for. Not even grim satisfaction that he had been punished. Just more nothing and the recognition that a hero had taken the easy way out and taken justice in their own hand.

Not that he could have blamed her. Colin knew that Saint would have likely fared worse if he had met him.

It wasn't like Armsmaster never thought about how to permanently remove the biggest problems while having it appear as an accident. It might be that people respected him for everyone he captured but Colin knew it wouldn't last. It never did. Most of the powered gang members they caught would be freed anyway. Something had to be done.

The suitcase revealed a bright orange box the size of a toaster. "While the other Dragonslayers and the suits were already gone in an attempt to distract us, we did find that box. From the notes we found, it appears to the key to Dragon's AI."

Armsmaster's eyes lit up as he carried the box to his workplace. "The Guild discussed it internally and we've come to the conclusion that you're the one who might be able to recover her. You've seen how she codes while she worked with you and she trusted you. Maybe she has hinted at her true nature in her conversations with you. Things that might help you in hindsight."

Colin took out his tools when he noticed that the box was unpowered and that connecting it to one of his monitors did nothing either.

"Masamune will be available over video conference at all times and will work on connecting the rest of Saint's servers to the Guild and you. If you'd like, he has offered to look into your nanothorn tech so you can focus more on trying to restore Dragon."

The Tinker exhaled, tension leaving his body he hadn't noticed building up ever since Dragon's death. He knew that it was unlikely he'd succeed anytime soon or at all, even the box was obviously work of a fellow Tinker as soon as the case was opened. But it gave him something he only just realized he was missing. Hope.

"That would be kind of him," Colin whispered, copying blueprints and calculations of the project that was put on the backburner because of everything else onto a memory stick of his own design. "And tell him I'll contact him soon." He offered the stick for Narwhal to take. It disappeared moments later.

Colin heard a soft chuckle and the door opening behind him.

"Kim," he called out to the leaving heroine. "Thank you. Truly, I mean it. Don't hesitate to ask if you need help."

Narwhal let out a bark of a laugh. "I'll remember that promise if you let yourself be helped more as well. Just focus on restoring our friend for now, Halbeard. See you 'round."

The door slid shut without an objection to his nickname.

He had work to do.

Two days later, the Endbringer alarm disrupted his efforts.

An unusual, heavy storm was detected north of the Channel.

Leviathan was about to attack the east coast of England. 


	4. Chapter 3

**Neither Worm or Magic the Gathering belongs to me. If you recognize it, chances are high it belongs to either John McCrae or Wizards of the Coast.**

 **A huge shoutout to both Roffster (on SV/SB) and** **Angle (on SV/SB) for helping to work out some kinks and proofreading and betaing my writing.**

 **This has taken a bit longer than I would have preferred but then again the individual chapters of this arc suddenly became longer than I had planned for. But hey, at least you get a sizable update in return. The doc manager told me it was 24.5 k words before putting in the author's note. So it's something, I guess?**

 **Ibskib: I'm indeed not a native English speaker and on top of that I have the tendency of getting side-tracked and deciding on another sentence structure on the spot midway into a sentence which leads to all kinds of nonsense. Most of your suggested corrections were from a chapter I pushed out on New Year's Eve and couldn't be properly proofread because of that and festivity related obligations from my main proofreader, Roffster. Thanks for taking time writing down the improvements and rest assured that I've implemented them over in the SB/SV thread. Due to the crappy reuploading system in place on FF, I'll likely hold off uploading these improved versions until the story is finished along with other rewrites/changes as not to spam those who have followed/favorited it with false chapter upload notifications.**

 **As always, feedback and reviews are hugely appreciated and feel free to poke me (or join the thread) on either spacebattles or sufficientvelocity if you want more direct interaction with me and other readers.**

* * *

"Care for some more tea, Ciara?" I asked, holding the still steaming teakettle.

If people had asked me where I saw myself after high school I may have answered with doing parahuman sociology studies or something. Before Winslow happened, I might even have mentioned that I hoped to see myself doing heroic stuff alongside Alexandria.

Never had I thought it would be serving tea to the Faerie Queen, one of the best-known boogie woman, in my very own cell block, surrounded by my children.

" _If you'd so please,_ " a chorus of voices replied.

Still, here I was, pouring in steaming hot, faithfully replicated, Smokey Lapsang into Glaistig Uaine's cup while Billy was playfully swiping at her stoic ghosts.

I honestly doubted that my own imagination would have even been able to come up with the ridiculous idea that I'd even be on first name basis with said terror cape.

Getting thrown into the Birdcage after a sham process was another thing that I wouldn't even have considered. I guess things balanced out in some sort of perverted case of karma.

Somehow.

Ciara let out a sound that lay somewhere between a delighted sigh and a hearty chuckle after her first sip, noticing what my child was up to.

The ghost suddenly reached out and even Billy had too little time to dodge that.

He collapsed into a deep sleep and a wave of bemusement and understanding went through the network I shared with everyone.

" _It's verily a joy to witness the faeries under your care frolic and learn as freely as they do,_ " she continued as she set down the delicate cup. " _They will strike terror in the hearts of their opponents in the last great war."_

Even under her shroud, I saw the corners of her lips rise slightly when she took another sip.

It was kinda weird knowing that she had plans three centuries into the future and fully expected me to stick around for as long as well.

Deep down, I had already realized that I would be at the rate my power base was growing, but still, it remained a foreign thought. At least, following the strain of logic my Powers seemed to follow, it wasn't a leap to also assume that I'd have similar control over my own body as the Faerie Queen long before that.

I would have to be careful not making the changes too obvious or else risk confirming the fears my colleagues had about my Powers.

Maybe, some changes could be played off as being natural to a teenaged girl in her teens. After all, not even Lustrum could fully remember how my mother looked.

It had always been like this ever since I had put together the gruel-fed replicator out of the scraps of a television, a couple of cots, and a bench or two. Enjoy the first cup of tea of the day with the scariest Cape in the Birdcage in relative silence while observing my children work together on one project or the other.

After that, Ciara would say something as an offer to ask related questions.

At first, I was just trying to get more info on the different Leaders, trying to figure out their true alliances. Then it moved on to refining plans to keep the 'Cage's population from erupting into unrest as the news of Dragon's demise became common knowledge as well as modeling how the Leader's loyalty would shift.

It didn't take long before that happened with how often Saint's announcement video was broadcasted on all channels.

The replicator may have been the very first thing I built together with my babies. It was a lucky coincidence that it could make killer ice cream as well. No matter what anyone else said.

As it stood, the Leaders that had personally visited me were unlikely to start trouble and were even willing to trade with me and ask for my healing services.

Oh, yes, I knew medicine now. All kinds specialties thanks to dear Pinky. Not many had taken up on my offer to visit my Cell Block somehow. Of course, I also knew Kung Fu as well.

Lab Rat would probably try something stupid but then again, he had already poor self-control without me dangling "material" in front of his nose. He would be dealt with when he moved.

He would be the first beside Ciara to know my full power before joining me if he made any moves. I couldn't dole out preventive measures to a nominative ally without everyone ganging up on me, but I could damn well retaliate. Lab Rat was very interested in my powers.

Similarly, I wouldn't ask for Bitch. She was under Ciara's protection and faeries kept their promises. That didn't mean I couldn't try and stage an instance of "self-defense".

The String Theory and Gavel alliance was a time bomb waiting to happen, especially since the remaining "neutral" parties were negotiating behind the scenes after Dragon's mess. The timing caused them to start blaming me.

All I could do without gaining far more power was making sure that there wouldn't be food riots to be used against us.

All of this I had worked out while drinking tea with Ciara and the few other Leaders who dared to enter my comfy hive.

This time, however, I got the vibe that she wanted me to talk about something else.

"Wouldn't they grow faster if we were out there, fighting?" I finally asked, touching upon something that had puzzled me for a while now.

Why was the collector of the dead sitting around in a cage, waiting for… something while she could be out there, helping with Endbringers as she reaped her bloody harvest?

Even though normal people had to wait before the official reports were released, I knew how many lives were lost when London fell under Leviathan's might. How many Capes died defending the doomed city even after realizing that Scion wouldn't show up.

I had begun to suspect that her faeries weren't pure idle talk. I had felt how more than just the minds connected to me during my takeover.

After so many conversions, I knew that any Power I got was still centered around the child it originated from. I saw _something_ behind each and every one of my cuddle snakes thanks to Pinky and only those who were directly created from my flesh bore any resemblance to others.

If she could see the same or even more, knowing that these… faeries would be lost must be frustrating.

Even disregarding that, it had been a rough five weeks in here with the same company and I was already bored out of my mind if I didn't find ways to entertain myself.

" _The fighters would be too busy worrying about me to combat the Nemeses threatening their very lives. The losses would doubtlessly be akin to now but their faeries would be compelled to dance to the tune of mine._ " A sad, harmonizing chuckle escaped. " _In my eagerness to save the little ones, I have been like a doting mother before, smothering their creativity by instilling a passion to please me in their little hearts. I couldn't save them all in the first place. Better let them enjoy the wide variety this world has to offer and welcome them when they have they have evolved a tune and dance as unique as themselves._ "

That also confirmed my theory how Ciara was talked into walking into the Birdcage in the first place – and why she hadn't escaped yet.

I didn't quite agree with her.

Even though it was… amusing to see the PRT suppressing their panic in order to come up with a roundabout way to permanently deal with threats now that the Birdcage was considered lost, a problem they had created themselves by rushing me in here, it was frustrating when I realized how much I could have helped the people.

Without changing anyone, I would have been able to rise to considerable power – I was rising to considerable power. I could have been an Eidolon-lite when given the time and chance.

With the right wording transforming Capes as well wouldn't have been that big a problem either. Just feed the knee-jerking people lines like I was continuing the legacy of died heroes and turned the Powers of villains for the better after a calamity like an Endbringer attack.

The PTR PR team was smart enough. They had managed to sell a literal body snatcher as a true hero, so why wouldn't they be able to do the same for a girl who could turn rapists into cute snake-like creatures?

I could have done something

My previous crimes wouldn't have been a problem either. Everybody with a clue of the local Cape scene knew that Shadow Stalker belonged in juvie. She just happened to be damned effective even while reigned in.

It wasn't like I wouldn't have been punished enough. I still impale Dad when I sleep. Saw his agonized, unseeing eyes as I ripped out his sides and observed his body from three different angles as I nailed him to the floor.

The worst was seeing his face go slack in relief when he realized that I was alright.

Leafy around my neck coiled tighter on my neck in a reassuring hug and May interrupted her silk-production to present an intricate work of webbing. I knew that they were trying to distract me from my pain. I felt their shared pain through my connection.

Even though I knew their ulterior motives, it worked.

I would find a way to get out of the 'Cage when the controversy around me had died down and I wouldn't earn an automatic Kill Order for merely existing. Even if it was just to prove to the big shots how wrong they were.

The fixed and upgraded television showed reports of pro-birdcage protests that had popped up throughout the US and Canada. Well, strictly speaking, they were against it the way it had been used but they were convinced that all life should be preserved, even that of prisoners condemned to remain incarcerated for all eternity.

It was enough for me to break the semi-comfortable silence that often occurred ever since Sharky had joined us.

"I think this is the right time to start demanding a better variety of books and more cigarettes," I stated looking at the report.

Conversing with Ciara had become a bit peculiar since I created a child to better scale the walls of the prison through whom I'd be able to make better use of the vertical space.

My goal was also to enable us to firmly attach our homemade hammocks but the best plans had multiple, mutually constructive goals after all.

I had been surprised when it became clear that would cost my entire body below the diaphragm but by then it was already too late.

At least it had put the chest burster birth of May two weeks before that into perspective when my stomach escaped together with four ribs and my left arm to form the silk-producing child.

Losing just my left leg the following week to birth Spike had already been peanuts compared to that and utterly paled to seeing your lower body crawl off.

Anyway, Sharky had the happy side effect that the more our roots spread, the harder we were to read by Thinkers. The information became more diffuse that way.

The white-ish roots didn't even look that bad with the dark blue metal that made up the walls of the Cage and were excellent anchors for all the hammocks and nests I could dream of.

Ciara had answered by manifesting a gho- faerie with a similar blocking effect and the whole thing quickly devolved into a game of trying to guess each other's thoughts. I didn't mind drinking my tea mostly in relaxed silence.

It was almost as fun as Tinkering together with my children.

Said Tinkering had also brought about beefing up the connection to the outside world that Pinky had established to the outside world in the first place. It became the main focus as soon as I learned that Dragon had died.

My opinion on the "world's greatest Tinker" might have dropped considerably after our little conversation before she dropped me into hell but she was the one keeping the whole prison running.

Or at least so I thought.

To prevent food riots for which I'd certainly be blamed, I wanted more information, so I maybe, kinda, established an internet connection for myself and used it to get full access to the PRT's inner workings, online databases, and communications.

In there, I found out that most of the 'Cage was self-sustaining and repairing as long as a steady shipment of supplies was maintained. It wasn't hard to twist a few conversations and create misinformation and strife to keep that running for the immediate future.

To be sure nobody tried to pull a fast one and bomb us out of existence and to better secure the supply train, I also started to mobilize the loud and the gullible.

That had been surprisingly easy. I only had to find the few people who were already vocal about the injustice that was represented by the birdcage and sent them a few inspiring messages. It was actually enough to remind them that the PRT would starve the poor souls in there if they got the chance out of convenience. That it would be an even absolute affront to our justice system to basically transform nearly 600 life-sentences into gruesome death-sentences through thirst, starvation, bloody riots or suffocation without even a retrial.

After that, it was only a matter of sprinkling different tidbits aimed at the feelings of the people on news sites and forums and directing them to the mobilized leaders and my job had been done. Things like reminding them of the six prisoners who had been judged innocent in a second ruling but were already imprisoned forever. That others might be innocent as well. That people they might know and loved could trigger at any moment and through a fallible system might have ended there as well. Leaking information that there was no medical personnel on site and then bringing up the attempted murder statistics of other prisons, extrapolating it to what it might mean in there.

The fact that there was talk about eased Kill Order designation in order to compensate for a lost Birdcage made it all too easy to paint pictures of a dystopian future filled with potentially super-powered Judge Dredds running around and "doling" out justice.

It was almost too easy to undermine the trust for the government in people by playing into their fears and channel that by giving them a way to apparently fight for someone else. By giving them the moral high ground.

Especially if you could post things at almost the speed of thought and multitask sixteen conversations and personas simultaneously. I would have been able to do more but the screens had become too small to be legible at that point.

It took less than a week to organize a protest march where everybody thought it had been their own idea.

All the while I had my children produce their spider silk on steroids in one of the cells and feed it into the spinner/weaver/fluffer machine that was my third invention while others were optimizing my other creations.

" _Alcoholic beverages would go a long way to relax the situation,_ " Glaistig Uaine answered.

I felt myself nodding in agreement. They had found ways to brew shit on their own anyway and the lure of better supplies would likely convince some inmates to turn their backs to Blocks with leaders, decentralizing the power a bit in the process.

I would have to model how much would bring the additional destressing while also preventing drunken riots but it was more than doable.

Nobody inside the 'Cage would know, of course. Just like they were unaware of my previous efforts. It would only serve to unnecessarily raise the tension with dreams of mass-escape. Something I knew would be impossible.

If I pushed the protests a bit, I might be able to frame it as an act of goodwill and remembrance for the lives lost in Levi –

" _It appears you'll soon have visitors, Queen Administrator_ ," Ciara announced using title she had given me, tearing me out of my thoughts. " _I will leave you with your thoughts, then, to not intimidate those trying to join you. Until we may meet again._ "

Right those guys. Precise precognition was surely handy if you could get your hands on it.

"It has been a pleasure, as usual, Faerie Queen," I replied with a curtsy. "I'll bring the blankets when I visit you tomorrow."

With a small curtsy, the scariest Cape of the Birdcage made her way towards the bright red curtains that marked the end of my Cell Block; my dominion.

I followed her a minute later, walking past the incomplete snake-like construct we were currently working on when I noticed the two figures climbing the ladder to my floor with my object sense.

It had been by far the weirdest thing that had happened to me since I was thrown in here and that ought to tell everyone something.

It was a week earlier when two tattoo-covered men I thought who were in their mid-thirties visited me with a request to join me.

Their facial tattoos should have been a clear sign to their motives. The two green orbs that adorned the left cheek of the lanky Hispanic and the bright red eye tattooed on the forehead of the Scandinavian made their alliance clear.

The Fallen had found me and some of them had apparently chosen me to be worthy of worship. Luckily, it wasn't a trend I had noticed outside of the Birdcage.

Still, the idea had somehow bothered me. I didn't like the mad fervor that shone in their eyes when I told them that the changes were permanent.

I was bothered how little objection I had felt to comply then and there; how I had to stop myself from transforming them.

I knew how much Missy, Steve, Pinky, and the rest liked being included in my little family. How much I longed to become more powerful – a longing strong enough to make me far too unfazed about the idea of brutally and painfully mutilating myself when it meant getting more Powers. I was going to create a new one as soon as we had recovered fully from Sharky.

I knew that I should have more reservations about what could easily be seen as permanently enslaving my fellow humans.

I had sent them away, imploring them to think on it for a week and only come back when they were completely sure. It might have also been an excuse to give myself some time to get used to the idea of people willingly giving up on their humanity.

Get to terms with apparently being worshiped by some.

"So, you have returned," I stated when the duo passed Beefy and Spike at the entrance.

"Yes," the presumed hydrokinetic replied. "My Queen."

Both of them kneeled in front of me, anticipation, joy, and zealousness intermingling in their brain and eyes.

"This is my last time I'll ask. Are you sure? There is no way back."

Even after a week, I hadn't been able to appeal to my conscience that what I was doing was supposed to be wrong. Instead I only found more reasons why I should.

The first and foremost was that these two were convinced enough that they would force my hand.

Even now I could see the little tells and clues that they were preparing to attack me in the hope of fulfilling their desires by force.

"Yes, my queen." Steel shone in the blond beefcake's face.

I took a step forward. "Very well then. Anything else you want to tell me before I begin?"

It wasn't as if I could make them stand up. I spent far too much time trying it the last time without success.

"Thank you," both murmured after giving each other a nod and lowering their heads in expectation.

I suppressed a sigh as I touched the crown of their heads. I heard their heartbeats quicken in joy.

I could see through their eyes what they had done to land in the cage. I felt the maiming and murder and worse they had committed to please their supposed gods.

The second thing I had realized was that the majority who survived the 'Cage were monsters. They would get a chance to start righting their wrongs as part of me.

My newly gained psychometry only confirmed my suspicions.

I _twisted_.

Fear spiked through them moments before they dropped to the ground, convulsing as bones shattered and their bodies were re-arranged.

I thought it might be fun to try my hands at being an admin on the PHO forums. It had spiraled into a mess after Dragon and with her Tin_Mother died.

Snake Queen would be a good admin username after all.

* * *

The now familiar feeling of minds connecting washed over me as the newest additions joined our extended family.

"Hello there," I welcomed the slightly disoriented four-foot snakes, "I hope it is everything you hoped for."

Happy chittering was all they had to say on that topic while I had Brain try out a combination of the hydrokinetics powers and Steve's.

"Go on, make yourself at home and we'll see where you two can help," I continued with a small mental push.

I felt a smile spread across my face as I saw them slither in with their heads held high, brimming with excitement.

If only they knew that they still had some presents waiting for them as I moved the others to the court.

Still, I needed to come up with some new names as well. I had kinda forgotten to ask and either way, I was sure it wasn't something I wanted to use in the first place.

Calling a child to me using the name "Braincooker" or something equally ridiculously threatening tended to put people on edge.

Even more so than they did already.

That said, it was becoming increasingly difficult to find fitting names for my children. With the ones made from my own flesh, I could still cheat by getting inspired by their looks and go from there. The ex-Capes mostly looked the same with only minor variations like Pinky's ever so slight belly.

It made the name picking process a bit tricky with how surprisingly quickly names could suddenly run out.

What made it more frustrating for me was how distinct every child felt in my mind. It felt inadequate to just pick any name. It felt inefficient. I didn't need names when they were all less than a thought away, eager to do whatever I asked of them. Eager to help the growth of the family.

I felt reassurance wash over me from the two newcomers. "No, it isn't fine that you two go without. The others have gotten ones and that's the least both of you deserve."

That was another thing I had noticed in the aftermath of Teacher's little stunt. My children seemed to be happy either with or without a name. I think they were generally happy when it came to what I did with Gonzo being the sole exception. The slippery little rascal.

It had become a matter of personal pride.

"What about… Carlos and Mike?" I asked as Brain cut through a metal plate with relative ease using his claw coated in fast-moving acid.

They seemed like a Carlos and Michael before they joined and their happy chirps confirmed that it was indeed good enough.

Well, if they seemed happy…

That feeling tripled when I had everyone come over to share their part of Pinky's power, making them that more capable of functioning without my direct input. Giving them better reaction times and patching up the holes in their perception. Allowing them to use most tools with only the foldable flaps of their claws and clever manipulation of their tails

It wasn't like I didn't have anything else to do so while Brain continued to slice a scrap of metal. I began the process of hacking into the PHO site and setting myself up as an admin. The site had always been a popular target for these kinds of things thanks to its popularity in Cape and general nerd culture and it had the added benefit that it wasn't a government site, which meant less severe consequences when a hacker was inevitably caught red-handed.

Add to it that, apparently, Dragon herself guarded over that domain, and you had something of a prestige object.

I had everything set up in less than twenty seconds and the reign of terror of Snake_Queen began.

It only took a minute before I got the first angry message objecting to the queen administrator tag I had cheekily given myself from one of the previous head-honchos. They got a polite reply that I was a merely concerned citizen who cared about their online forums and as such had promptly volunteered.

By the time I had issued the first warnings and temporary bans to my new subjects, I started to taste the desperation in their messages threatening that they would find out sooner or later where I was. Of course, when they'd find out anything it would be when they were already used to my presence and would end up "finding" a Texas-based, Snake-themed heroine whose self-absorbed nature was well known enough.

I let the two newlings to deal with the amateurish counter-hacking attempts of one self-proclaimed cowboy while collecting the rolls of fabric Marquis and Galvanate had ordered.

He hadn't taken it that well when I gave him a week-long time-out for Cape guessing and apparently decided it was time for more drastic measures. At least it gave Carlos and Mike an easy first day in the family.

"Gonzo, Drilly, and Thomas," I called out as Leafy secured the roll of cloth on my left shoulder while I held the one on my right. "It's time for walkies!"

The three children in question turbo-moved to my side and thus we went our way towards the ladder leading to the lowest accessible level of the men's block. It was kinda silly, summoning them like that and I knew that people might be listening in.

I was actually counting on being heard. Rotating the children out that accompanied me during my tours through the Birdcage and announcing that fact might help to keep people on their toes. Announcing their names for everyone to hear might make people believe that their powers were similarly individualistic.

It wasn't coincidence either that I took four children with me either. It hit a kind of a sweet spot between accessibility and intimidating. It dissuaded people from bothering me while I was transporting luxury items without looking like much of a danger myself. Rotating three of the four companions helped to keep the people on their toes as they couldn't be sure what to expect either.

Stepping through the curtains that marked my block, I had to suppress a slight chuckle as the final reason for my exiting tactic kicked into action.

It gave the Capes sent to observe my movements plenty of times to scamper away. That way I ran fewer risks that the full extent of my perception would get known.

I knew that there was at least one Stranger who prided herself in her camouflaging abilities. If I only perceived the normal visible spectrum it was indeed an impressive ability, it was just her bad luck that she was still emitting heat and that it didn't help much against my literal x-ray brain vision either. She still thought.

Never mind how I simply instinctively knew where she was inside the range of the object sense Brain shared with the class if everything else failed.

I had the children who were on guard duty at any given time react to any strangers who tried to sneak in and take a peek at what happened behind the curtains but I didn't want to thoroughly dash the confidence of my watchdogs.

I was beginning to really like being underestimated. People who were too confident made more mistakes.

Just ask Pinky what happened to those people.

"You okay, Leafy?" I asked the one constant neck-based companion on all my trips as we comfortably traversed the overgrown corridor to the makeshift ladder going down.

She chirped an affirmative while I could feel the few Capes who remained in my floor stare at me in open mistrust. I let them, focusing instead on the five children who were using Mike's microwave beam on steroids to heat the metallic shavings Brain cut earlier.

I only had access to the heat-resistant polymer block the metal was resting on but would love to make a crucible now that I had a reliable way to heat it. It was one of the things that was relatively high on my to-do list and something that held back my Tinkering significantly. For that I'd have to find superior isolating materials than those I could synthesize myself which in turn meant dealing with Lab Rat the next time I paid him a visit.

I really wanted to get a feel of the power-output range first and use that to calculate how much "ideal" material I'd need. His prices would otherwise be exorbitant and he wasn't someone I wanted to be indebted to. I didn't like the cruel bastard.

"Look out below!" I shouted into the hole as the trio slithering snakes made their way downwards.

Sure, I could save a couple of seconds by just jumping down with the rolls of fabric on my shoulders but that would just serve as evidence of my own enhanced abilities. It would ruin the fun of having to mime feeling the load in the first place and the more people that thought I was just a fairly regular Master, the better.

Besides, I didn't want to risk a too heavy landing. It was enough of a miracle that the place hadn't simply collapsed already.

I seriously had no idea how Dragon had made this place on her own before she truly got active on the Cape scene.

By the time I rejoined my thrown rolls of trade goods, one roll was balancing on the heads of Drilly and Thomas while in my block the heat-resistant polymer had caught fire.

While making my way to Block W, that problem was solved by making a daisy chain from the running showers to the fire and channeling a continuous stream of water.

"Hey there, CH!" I greeted Marquis' lieutenant at the gate as my children, the danger averted, went back to their previous posts. "How are the teeth?"

"They're fine, Sliver." The cape with the charcoaled hands replied, gnashing his teeth.

"Are you sure? I even brought Teacher's previous head-dentist with me if you don't trust me." Drilly waved with a friendly chirped greeting.

Instead of just speaking his mind, Cinderhands opted to stare at me. One of his molars had started to rot a few days before my drastic take-over and he blamed me for the pain it caused.

Sure, I offered him the same service and better than he would have gotten before for half the price but he had proven to be extremely reluctant to let me anywhere near him. Even after proposing to do the check-up in their block under the watchful eyes of Marquis.

"Bit late for that," he replied after calming down a bit, pulling back his mouth to show a missing molar in a mocking smirk. "Took care of her myself already. That cloth is ours?"

"One of them," I replied bumping the roll on my shoulder for emphasis, feeling a pulse of glee coming from Leafy. "Are the books prepared?"

"Sure." Cinderhands shrugged and counted my children, looking for any hidden ones while his brain flared to life in concentration. "That's all of them, right?"

I gave him a placating smile. "Where would I ever want to hide anything? I could successfully hide behind a streetlamp. These are all of them I brought today."

"Just don't cause any troubles in there," the lieutenant on guard duty finally warned me as he stepped aside.

"I won't," I easily answered stepping past him. "Just make sure to ask for my help the next time your teeth start acting up. I won't bite. Promise."

It was always the same deal with the guy in the handful of times I had visited Block W. He had probably been a leader of his own back when he was free only to learn that his powers weren't enough to hack it in the 'Cage. He had the paranoia of someone who was used to people aiming for his position and the subsequent disdain of having to rely on others. He was longing for the time where he could take any existing structures over without having to rely on his powers too much, fueling his rebellious streak he tried to suppress.

"Can't fucking wait until the creep slips up." Case in point: his muttering when he believed himself to be out of my earshot.

Walking the floors covered in ever so fine powered bone I made my way to Marquis cell, intimately aware how I was moving through the lion's den of the gangster and wondering whether I should tell him about his subordinate's revolutionary streak.

I kept a steady pace and ignored the blatant stares my presence always brought about. It was interesting how the different leaders ruled their blocks.

Where Marquis commandeered his block with an ever-present but subtle reminder of the danger he posed in a laughingly nonchalant manner, the more cautious ones like Galvanate didn't let me enter unless necessary.

Marquis wanted everyone he dealt with to remember that they were in his mercy and thought his strength was enough to invite people in.

With what I remembered and researched from his reign in my home town, I had to agree. Especially after reading his official PRT files and seeing how his was one of the only two block with five functioning televisions.

The leader of Block W walked out of his cell, past his carelessly discarded shards of bones that decorated the entrance while I had Pinky take a closer look at the water pipes after having cleaned up the watery mess of earlier.

"Sliver," Marquis started, looking down on me from his place on the ramp and easily leaning on the railings. "I'm pleasantly surprised. I didn't expect it to be finished quite that soon."

"I've been busy," I replied while setting foot on the ramp. "I hope it wasn't too difficult to acquire the books I asked for?"

"No not at all, I had them collected as soon as I placed the order. They're in my cell. After you." Marquis beckoned me in, dipping his head in a polite curtesy.

It lifted my mood that was kinda ruined by my discovery that the pipes had a mixture of one way valves and ones that were opening and closing at such intervals that there would be no extended stretches of continuous water. Getting in whatever collection tank they led to would probably be possible with my new hydrokinetic powers but getting anywhere else from there would likely be impossible. Getting back would be a challenge all on its own even with Steve's Breaker form helping out.

I suppressed a sigh. It wasn't unexpected with how Carlos had stuck around but, still, it was disheartening to strike out another possible escape route off the list. I sent Pinky to help with dismantling my current project together with the others.

At least that one I could rebuild with much better tools, improving on the design of the robot I wanted to make.

"I'm guessing there's more to it than just handing me my payment, isn't there?" I idly asked when Marquis followed me into his own cell.

I didn't feel like hanging around for long enough to start becoming uncomfortable and he did seem like a guy who would like to cut the chit-chat in private.

"Most observant of you," he noted with a tinge of approval. "And direct as well. Fine."

I saw the sign of him steeling himself, the lowering of his heartrate while at the same time preparing to use his powers, without his mask changing one bit.

"I wanted to ask you about an…interesting observation I made recently. If you don't mind that is."

"Sure, ask." I shrugged. "I'm not in a hurry today. Either people aren't getting sick or wounded or they don't trust me just yet so I'd just be reading after delivering the other roll to Galvanate."

"You see, when we learned that Dragon kicked the bucket we half expected that soon we'd be fighting over supplies with this facility being functionally useless to our dear friends at the PRT. I was even preparing my block for the worst case." He grabbed the bundle of books with a biology textbook plainly visible, handing it to me. "Imagine our surprise when that didn't happen and even better, that the drops we did get became almost unnoticeably better after remaining nearly constant for more than a decade."

"Oh, it did get better," I replied with my best poker face while Carlos and Mike were typing out a warning to a troll on the PHO forums. "I was wondering whether it was my imagination. I mean, I only had the gruel while I was in Ciara's block so it was difficult to accurately compare."

It was fun to see his tension spike at the mere mention of Glaistig Uaine's given name. "It was also very interesting to see people protesting for our rights – the first time in more than a decade if my memory serves me right."

"Very interesting." I smiled. "Maybe others will be spared our fate when the big shots manage to get their access back and we won't face starvation. If we get a better living down here all the better. I mean, it's not like we can ask ourselves anymore now that our draconian overseer has kicked the bucket."

"Very lucky coincidence indeed," Marquis agreed, sizing me up behind his unmarred mask.

"Might I ask a question in return?"

"It's only fair amongst fellow leaders."

Marquis knew or at least strongly suspected what I was doing behind the scenes. Trying to buy his silence was a fairly good idea. Even if he was pragmatically focused on his own survival and thus not a serious threat, I couldn't be sure that Gavel or String Theory didn't offer him a better deal after my interference to ensure the 'Cage's continued survival wasn't needed anymore.

"Is it possible that Cinderhands has been a bit more withdrawn since my first visit?"

Marquis raised an eyebrow. "He wasn't that talkative to begin with. Why do you ask?"

"It's just that he doesn't seem to agree with my presence here." I left out the part that I was here on Marquis' express permission. Undermining his leadership too much would do me little good. "I even overheard some clear remarks that underlined that sentiment when he thought I was out of earshot." I gave him an innocent smile. "I was just wondering whether you knew the cause. I mean I even offered the guy healing at half my rate so I thought it to be a bit strange."

Something cold and calculating flashed in his eyes. "I didn't know. If you'd allow it, I'd like to investigate my subordinate's attitude myself."

"Sure," I admitted airily. "No problem. By the way does anyone need my services to your knowledge? I mean since I'm here anyway and I brought the Dentist."

Drilly gave an affirmative chirp from under Galvanate's roll of thick cloth.

"That won't be necessary," Marquis answered while subtly moving out of the way from my path to the door. "I guess I can't convince you to join for some coffee?"

"No," I answered before taking my first step. "Thank you, Marquis, for the offer but I just had tea with Ciara so I'll have to decline."

"A pity." Again, that short spike of panic. "Maybe next time, Sliver."

"I'll try to keep it in mind." I said, stopping at the door. "Just out of pure academic curiosity, would people be glad for a beer every now and then?"

"One can only dream, Sliver." I saw the corner of his mouth creep upwards as I turned to make my way to Galvanate.

I made sure that Drilly, Thomas, Gonzo, and Leafy waved CH goodbye as we continued our journey to hopefully fetch the second bundle of books.

The encounter with the leader of Cell Block Y was much shorter and far more businesslike.

A runner was sent inside when the guards spotted our approach and after a short conversation both between me and the runner, Galvanate and the guards and me, the leader himself stepped outside with the parcel in one hand.

I couldn't help but notice how he deliberately touched both guards while his Powers flared when he passed them.

A couple of questions ensuring that they had no need for any of my additional services and an exchange of goods later and I was once more on my way. This time, back to my cell.

Nobody in the either of the leaderless blocks made any attempts to get my attention, instead keeping an eagle's eye on me and preparing for a fight that would never come.

I guessed nobody was badly hurt which was perfect.

While the two children responsible for manning the terminal were doing their best, there was only so much they could type with only one claw each – even with a Mover ability that specialized in small, fast movements. With the increasing pressure from the other mods and the explosion of speculation, they were approaching their limits.

It was time that I tagged them out and showed everybody on the PHO forums that I was there to stay. They could help converting one of the cells into an extended bookshelf.

* * *

"One last thing before you leave," Crane called my attention as I had finished installing a hot tub using one of their televisions as raw materials. "Would you be interested in the self-defense lessons I offer?"

"No offense, Crane," I replied while I had Missy scare away an adventurous Stranger from my block with a hiss. "I'm afraid that such lessons would be wasted on me. Pinky might have given me a bit of a boost that enables a little Thinking and Tinkering but that would hardly matter against a proper Brute or Mover." I scratched Leafy on the bridge of her snout. "I'd have better luck concentrating on my babies than to risk messing things up by going in myself, so I'm not quite sure why you'd bring it up? I'd just be in the way."

Crane looked at me with open skepticism, her Power flaring to life. "It hurts to see you hold yourself back. I generally recommend creature-focused Masters such as yourself to learn as well. Ambitious people might decide that they could take you on personally; I'd hate to lose someone sane and willing to help people due to misguided procrastination."

"I'd simply rather play into my strengths and keep a couple of my children nearby to discourage precisely such plans." Leafy opened her eyes to give her an evil eye while I lightly smiled. "They do love me ever so much and have little patience with anyone foolish enough to come close to me. The Striker part of my package and everything should keep the sane ones away after all."

I shrugged motioning to my general physique as Beefy inched his way between the two of us. "Forget about Brutes and Movers I'd need to get some flesh on these sticks I call appendages first before I could even think about going against fully grown adults all on my own."

"I can see that is a lie," Crane spoke, impatience lacing her voice which made the collection of stony-eyed prisoners that had gathered flinch. "You're holding back, you purposefully stifle your movements. Imagine how much better you could protect yourself and your children if you allowed yourself to be properly taught? Imagine wh – "

"Or it could be that I'm a growing 15-year-old girl who's still adapting to her changing body," I suggested. It interrupted her sales pitch which caused another spike in the heart rates of her subjects.

I was starting to see how evil overlords came to be. Getting away with shutting up scary people like this was fun.

"Besides;" I continued with a chuckle, "am I not a little old for you, Crane? Before I landed here I liked to keep up with Cape news and I have been asking around even before Teacher." It wasn't as if she would know that information about her had been suppressed to protect the disciples that had ended up with the Wards or Protectorate and that I had access to her very files. "I thought you only did your indoctrination to younger kids you kidnapped first. I really don't like the idea of being ground down through extreme training from hell. If you don't mind too much, I'll just take my books and go."

"A shame," Crane stated, masking her irritation well enough to anyone who couldn't see into her body.

If it was anyplace else, I'd have had pitied her students. Even before I had the feeling that the hot tub would be more a necessity than a luxury under her regime. Now, after having me walk out?

Most definitely a strict necessity.

Sharky showed his impressive set of teeth as tendrils grew out of his head, securing the stack of books. "In that case, I'll be off. Don't hesitate to send someone if you need anything or anyone fixed."

"I will," was all she had to say while trying to bore holes into my skull by staring hard enough.

She had been correct on one account, though. It was indeed a pity, just not for the reasons she thought it was.

I saw her momentum orb briefly flicker into existence behind me as I walked out of her block, following my vanguard of Beefy and Billy.

I had already suspected she knew more than she let on after reading her file. Optimizing movements and coming up with perfect Thinker-made fighting styles for parahumans were her thing, even if those styles were drilled into her students with ruthless programs.

As one of two nominally neutral blocks, it had surprised me a bit when a request for a hot tub or "something similar" came in. Since I had been able to be productive enough on the PHO forums despite the moderators and a scaled-down test of Mike's beam didn't end in another fire I had decided to humor them.

I wanted to be useful after all in ways that didn't involve revealing my hands in the riots and food deliveries plus it was a decent way to finally meet Crane. It would mean that I could start figuring out where her allegiance would be when push came to shove and hey, maybe I would get lucky for once. I was going to go for tea with Ciara anyway and even if Crane turned out to be less than friendly I could still figure out what she did know and maybe learn anything I could use against her.

Her trying to get influence over me through offering a "favor" was a pity as was the way she decided to pressure me when I declined her offer. It had kinda ruined my enjoyment of the aggravated look on Bitch's face when I had my children perform their smuggest wave possible as I left.

On top of that, it made me have to escalate as well. I couldn't let people think I was easily pushed around and especially in here people had to know that there'd be consequences.

Even in the Birdcage, the majority of people thought poorly of child abusers and due to the secrecy surrounding her, I had an inkling that she had kept conveniently quiet about that part.

If it meant that I had to enter a Cold War scenario to prevent information from being readily spread, I was willing to play ball.

That said, I had secretly hoped that she would throw the first punch as I walked away. While I couldn't have just turned the entire block or simply attacked the Leader to be done with the problem without fearing to get the entire 'Cage after my scrawny ass, I sure as hell could defend myself.

Words were just words after all and if I had limited myself to just immediate threats, people would have looked at Crane in pity over her poor judgment.

Too bad she wasn't considered a cell block leader without reason and could indeed hold her temper without lashing out.

I sighed as I climbed the ladder. There had to be easier ways to deal with things than to try and control someone who just wanted to help.

At least until said someone managed to bust herself out without subsequently suffering from Triumvirate-induced annihilation.

Once I climbed up from the lower floors of the women's wing, I turned away from the Hole and instead made a small detour with three of my children flanking me in a triangle formation.

"Heya, Sliver!" I was greeted as I approached cell block E. "How you doing?"

"Fine," I replied. "How are you doing, Shrimp? Anything happened since the last time I visited?"

"My shoulders feel a lot better," the redhead answered rolling them to demonstrate the effectiveness of my treatment. "I think it's just the television you fixed last time that's been acting up."

I felt my eyebrow rise at that. "Let me guess, Redneck?"

"Wanted to see what you did to it and, well…" She shrugged. "Tinkers."

Billy squawked in agreement to that simple statement.

"Did she take anything out?" It would be a pain to jury-rig too much into it and it would only tempt the culprit to try and figure out my methodology even more.

"Don't think she did. I think she realized halfway through that she couldn't copy it and put it back together. Tried to." Shrimp gave a nervous chuckle. "At least it hasn't shot anyone yet so she is getting better."

"No time to lose then," I replied with a chuckle while moving past her.

Conversation halted as I crossed the threshold into cell block E, eyes focused on me and a breath later, life continued as usual. A group of four was playing cards on one of the tables while another group was watching coverage of London. People were chatting with each other while leaning against the wall, with some clearly showing more than the need of distracting small talk – more than just a strained friendship of necessity.

Only one blonde sat alone at the table, engrossed with what looked like a freak blunderbuss. Around one of the televisions, the one that was flickering, there seemed to be a safety perimeter where no-one dared to thread.

Redneck and her latest creation.

"There you are, Sliver," Lustrum spoke as she stood up from her spot in front of the television. "I was starting to wonder whether you forgot the girls and me – "

She suddenly stopped and gave me a skeptical look. "Sliver, what have you done this time?"

"Nothing," I airily replied. "Why do you ask?"

"You look just like Anne after she had gotten away with something but wasn't quite sure whether she was happy with the outcome." Lustrum vaguely gestured at my face. "She wore that same pensively smug look after she had informed her parents that she was changing majors. Before she told me about your dad."

"I was over in Crane's block before," I replied while making my way to the tampered television.

"Ah. I'm guessing she wanted more than just whatever you offered in the first place. If you don't mind me asking, what did she want? It isn't like they use their televisions and I would have thought that she liked her neutrality too much for anything other than medical emergencies."

The irritation I felt due to the whole situation that doubled after seeing the mess Redneck had made bled over into the warning Pinky was writing.

"She had me commission a hot tub," I answered while Leafy used her unfurled claw to slowly and carefully undo the first screw. "Then she offered to teach me how to fight."

"And you've obviously refused." I wouldn't have needed my extensive ways of perceiving the world to see her pinching the bridge of her nose from her tone alone.

"She was rather insistent." I simply stated, relaxing a little when the ball wasn't shot out of the tube that had ended up in the broken television for whatever forsaken reason.

I really had to talk to Redneck about what were sensible modifications. Sure, on one hand, she provided for reasons that I could keep visiting and talk about Mom but on the other hand, ballistic weaponry.

Integrated into everything if Lustrum couldn't keep an eye on the blonde.

"Good thing you did. I've heard rumors about her maintaining contact to String Theory as of late. Suddenly calling you to do anything sounds like an early attempt of neutralizing you." I noticed her eyes widen in realization as she scratched the jaw of a very content Beefy. "Please, tell me you didn't antagonize her in the process."

"She pushed." I shrugged as I had Billy lower me back down to the floor, the immediate danger disarmed. "I didn't like it and replied in kind. Nothing that should lead to open conflict but I don't think she likes me very much anymore. But then again, she started it by trying to convert me through her veiled friendly offer. I'll deal."

"Now I fully remember why I had let Anne-Rose go when she wanted out. For a man no less." Lustrum's expression was conflicted as I faced her again. "You might even be more headstrong than she was. Are you sure that – "

"I'll be fine in my cell block," I reassured her when I recognized the start of the same old song and dance we usually had once per visit. "I have my children to protect me against anyone stupid and my equipment is in there. It has even started to become homely if you ignore its very nature."

Lustrum clearly didn't agree with me. "If you say so." She nodded at the dismantled husk of consumer electronics. "So, what's the damage?'"

"You could take a look yourself and visit me sometimes if you don't believe me. Anyway, I don't know exactly what Redneck has done to it but I'd have to make a couple of pieces completely from scrap. It would take a couple of days with all the orders I have."

"I'd have to make arrangements first to ensure my girls' safety." I could see her brain light up as she started to plan the necessary measures before adding, "I sense a 'but' in that assessment of yours."

"You'd be right. While it isn't enough to repair it straight away I could, if I can strip one of the unused cells and you can convince Redneck to share her tools with me, make a hot tub for your block in one of the corners of the shower area."

"Tempting but what would it cost?" Lustrum queried, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

No matter how close you thought you were with others, in the Birdcage nothing was given for free.

"If I got help from a couple of your girls? I'd say I could do it for two books of my choosing."

It took a moment for Lustrum to weigh the pros and cons before offering her hand. "Deal."

The next couple of hours were spent completely dismantling the corpse of the television, transporting the salvaged sheets of metal from the sacrificed cell to the shower with the help of Lustrum and a couple of her girls, and Tinkering together a workable hot tub. One that was bigger and better than the one I had installed over at Crane's place.

All the while my children were working on another attempt of building mechanical counterpart of themselves and I was reminiscing on Mom's past together with Lustrum.

She'd tell me stories of her time in the movement, of the small little problems she had with her parents while trying to become her own person in college while I'd talk about the humble and mundane life of the Heberts. About how happy she had been with Dad.

It felt as if the new addition to cell block E's showers was done in no time.

"Don't hesitate to ask me when your joints start acting up again," I told Shrimp as I walked out of the block carrying two more books of a series I had gotten into lately.

The struggles of a wisecracking pyromaniac with plenty of common sense being replaced by extra strong moral fibers trying to do good even though the universe appeared to plot against him. It was nice.

"I will," the guardswoman half-shouted. "Take care of yourself as well, Sliver."

"Don't I always," I replied walking backward and waving goodbye together with my children.

Shrimp's only answer was to snort in disbelief.

The trip back to my cell block was uneventful. I could feel the tense stares of people observing me from every block I passed and saw them retreat when one of my children looked their way.

One thing was different than previous times, though. When passing the ladder to the lower levels of the women's wing, I sensed a smaller, lithe form climbing up. Someone who was following me with a slight limp, trying to stay out of sight of me and my children but unaware of the spatial awareness Brain gave me that made her efforts obsolete.

It took about a quarter hour after we returned before she had apparently worked up enough courage to approach my cell.

"Come in," I called out when she stopped where May and Johnny stood guard, lost on how she had to proceed.

I saw her startle at my apparent omniscience but still, she came in moments later.

Let them think twice about starting nonsense in my block.

"Are you Sliver?" she asked shyly, clutching the cancer sticks in the hand that was poking out the ends of her old and too large sweater whose sleeves were frazzled into ribbons.

She was small and looked young, at least on the surface. Inside, I could see the signs of her true age more clearly. The joints showed sign of wear and her liver really didn't look all too good. I could see the signs of plastic and height surgery. Her bones were shortened and the makeup she wore clearly had the goal of reinforcing the illusion of youth.

Her left hip throbbed with the heat of a painful inflammation.

"I take it you're here for your hip," I began scouring my memory for the right Birdcage file. "Play Time?"

"How did you know?" the villainess asked with a saccharine sweet voice while I had Pinky pull up the needed files. "It's creepy how you did that."

"I like to keep myself informed," I simply stated as Thomas joined Pinky to speed things along.

I forced the rest to continue working as if nothing was wrong.

It was the first time someone actually came and visit me with the intention of getting healed and entered my domain for longer than it took to state a request from their leaders.

Sure, Ciara came for tea every second day but there was little she had to fear. The Leaders that had visited me, counted on me not being absolutely crazy as they would be able to mobilize the rest of the 'Cage if anything happened to them. They could be relatively sure that they were safe.

I had never seen Play Time outside of the mugshot of her file. She wasn't part of any of the blocks I regularly visited.

I didn't trust her further than my scrawny frame could have kicked her before I triggered; she set off all kinds of alarms but there was fairly little I could do without screwing me over.

After all, I wanted to establish myself as the helpful Cape until either the whole Teacher business was forgotten or I could get out. I had to prove that nothing of value was lost with the disappearance of Teacher and that I could fulfill his niche and more.

It wouldn't do me any good to throw out the first person who came to visit me with the express purpose of getting help. I was surrounded by deranged and dangerous criminals and plenty of them had still survived. The fact that she gave off a bad case of stranger-danger didn't mean that she was planning anything as much as she had learned how to survive in the Birdcage all on their own.

Something that was especially needed if she turned out to come from a leaderless block.

I was scary enough on my own as well. I had become someone other people were wary of.

Play Time's face lit up. "That makes sense! But, uhm, yes I do want my hip to get looked at… do you think this is enough?"

I looked at the outstretched hand, politely not pointing out that I couldn't see since her oversized and tattered sleeves were entangled with her hands and thus obscuring much of the pile of cigarettes. I could count them like this anyway.

"I think that will be enough," I honestly answered while stepping towards the cell I had transformed into an impromptu doctor's office and operating cell. "Just follow me and put them on a table and we'll sort that out later. I'll first take a look at the damage, all right?"

"Surio!" the woman impersonating a girl shouted out as she moved to catch up to me.

Meanwhile, as Pinky had found the files of my soon-to-be patient, the woman in question was looking around in awe, watching my children work on one project or the other.

The area of her brain that was associated with her Powers, the corona pollentia and especially her gemma, were lighting up, not enough to activate her powers outright but just to be ready to at a moment's notice.

I reminded myself that seeing my children work for the first time was apparently somewhat unnerving if Kaze's word was to be believed. The other leaders who had visited me hadn't said anything but if their brain patterns were any indication, it seemed to be the truth.

I reminded myself that being ready to be attacked was a sign of due diligence – especially near a newcomer wildcard who already had the apparent tendency of Mastering people. Someone who had Mastered an entire cell block in mysterious circumstances.

I had a worse track record in the Birdcage than the fellow Striker/Master who was following me deeper into my block. Deeper into danger.

No sane person with a temporary, quasi-uncontrollable Master power would try anything, especially not if they needed genuine help. The collection of monsters that inhabited the 'Cage were forced to learn at least the facsimile of civility when it was already far too late to really matter.

"Wait, one last thing," Play time spoke as she moved closer to me, lifting her arm as if she wanted to tug at my shirt to get my attention while shyly holding onto herself with the other.

I truly read the reconstruction of what the PRT believed to be her Trigger and her psyche evaluation instead of skimming over it as I had earlier. I internalized the addendum notes that her powers could be conducted through small stretches of clothing.

The first week after I had taken over Teacher's block I had experimented with different forms of precognition only to learn that the vast majority was too unreliable or too distracting to be used permanently. The further ahead I pushed it, the less precise it became, and the more I tried to narrow things down, the more I somehow became detached from the presence. Even "danger senses" were less than useful thanks to the threats that surrounded everyone in the 'Cage; inhabiting the same prison as I was. The only one I had been able to make work without countless of false-positives was one that only gave me a fraction of a moment to react.

Trying to get more info out of my… faerie vision beyond the mere flavor of the "creatures" the Capes were bound to resulted in seeing Trigger Events before anything else. I witnessed gruesome snippets of events that had created the monsters that co-inhabited the place I now had to call "home" without getting close to seeing the true powers they were granted because of them. It was too much in a place with hundreds of Capes. It distracted and was inefficient. I had more use of the simplest form with which I could see their abstract representations which changed when they granted their Powers. That at least helped me differentiate between the near-constant state of preparedness seen in most inmates and their active use.

I had found out that it was better to rely on an array of Thinker Powers and hope that you found dangers fast enough.

It wasn't quite enough when getting in a positon where I was forced to be reactive instead of proactive. It certainly wasn't enough when dealing with genuine crazy who made snap decisions on the spot.

"You're it!"

Several things happened nearly at once moments before Play Time decided it was indeed time to start things with her moving hand a mere fraction of an inch away from my shirt.

My heartbeat wasn't in synch so I had four of my children push me away while six others did the same with Play Time.

I saw her creature, her faerie, activate even as a dozen children rattled her unconscious.

It wasn't enough.

I saw something travel through her arms, an impulse that was more than just electrical, jumping between her skin and clothes at her hands and I realized why she had worn a sweater that was four sizes too big. Her arm was still in motion, whipping forward the strips of frazzled clothes with me still being clearly in her range.

The momentum involved; the forces needed to get away cleanly were simply too great for me to overcome on such a short notice. The area those reaching tendrils of fabric covered was too big for me to dodge out of the way using Mover ability Billy gave us. The acceleration needed to get me clear from those clothe coils broke what was possible in such a short distance without risking to utterly destroy the integrity of my block and killing us all.

A determined pulse of sheer need to protect made me use my remaining children to push the nearby Beefy to intercept the tussles on instinct. I could have tried to push each strand away individually but it was far from a certainty that I would have succeeded with limited space the telekinetic pushes would have to build up and how precise the manipulation had to be.

I had far more space to accelerate Beefy to intercept.

Beefy transformed into our acid Breaker state mid-air and I saw the whipping strips of cloth dissolve together with the tips of Play Time's fingers.

It was too late.

Her powers fully activated and we jumped away from the heap of primordial terror that flew to the ground while completely focusing on the translucent danger in our midst.

Rage coursed through us as we witnessed the hated enemy reform.

We moved to utterly eradicate.

* * *

The next heartbeat arrived and seven of my children moved as one towards the reformed boney monster and away from the terrifying creature crawling on the ground while three others targeted its brain to stop it from getting away.

Even as I felt part of my vision go out of focus I, together with the rest of my children who had taken position on the ceiling, focused microwave beams at the target, aiming at the eyeless head while its confused warble died with its consciousness.

Seven claws coated with vortices of blisteringly fast spinning acid struck down at the prone form, aiming to sever the wicked claw from its body, part it from its means to escape, pierce the erratically beating heart, and saw deeply into its head.

I hissed as the claws bit into the hard skin, breaching it and I felt an irritating tingling sensation on my arms and legs and face – no doubt a counter attack of the monster.

The burning acid did surprisingly little as I pulsed it into the wounds and sucked it back out with all the blood the claws could collect as I pulled out of the shallow wounds, raising my claws just enough to get them in the clear. I only lifted them high enough that they were barely clear of the convulsing form. We didn't need more.

My face began to burn as the claws descended down upon the creature a second time, harder and faster than before thanks to the power Thomas had given me.

I felt my legs give way and my body cry out in agony as a twitching tail was nearly severed, the hiss on my lips mutating into an outcry of pain even as I felt thrilled that the skull was about to be pierced and that its limbs would come fully off with the next blow.

The heart was close enough to the claw caught in the monster's boney skin that I could feel its stuttering beat.

Seven claws were raised once more to finish the job, draining more blood in the process, to let the creature before me pay for daring to psychologically attack _me_ in its final moments.

One last time, I had the deadly appendages rain down to main, to sever, to kill, and to destroy while my hands wandered up to my face to protect myself against whatever it used to attack my face in its dying breath.

It would be the last thing it ever did. Even if it was resistant to my acid, I had enough of its raw flesh exposed to the surface of my claws to thrust the liquid mixture of blood and acid inward in a devastating pulse, shredding tissues and bones, liquefying them. Allowing me to push further inward and wreak havoc until only soup remained. Even if it was able to resist the acid itself.

I nearly blacked out in anguish before I hit the ground, the mother of all headaches blanking out any means of perceiving my surroundings.

Worry, confusion, and livid anger stormed through the connection I shared with my children as my world came back into focus and the phantom pains faded for something else entirely.

I realized what I had done without even needing to feel my skin – our skin – growing soft. Without feeling another big void in my mind.

The sorrow and self-loathing I pushed aside triggered a second wave of confusion in my children even as we all zeroed in on the one who had caused all of this.

Beefy was dead. A puddle of gooey, bubbly flesh as the acid devoured his remains when he lost his connection to us and with it, my innate immunity to my acid.

Memories slid into place and corrected themselves while we shook off whatever Play Time had done to us – whatever her Power did to make us hate our own family to attack while robbing us of any ability to recognize him.

There was no filter anymore that would have prevented me from facing the truth of my action; I didn't feel any Master influence in those accursed perfect memories.

I remembered clearly the fear and confusion Beefy felt when his family suddenly turned against him.

When _I_ suddenly betrayed him and forced him to abandon his Breaker form.

When I made him stay still as his face started to burn from the heat.

The fact that he had already been unconscious when the claws struck, lessening my poor baby's suffering was only a small comfort to me.

It had also lessened the pain I felt through our link. It had allowed me to finalize the attack.

I didn't know whether the tears I felt welling up where those of sadness or pure rage.

I couldn't let the bitch who had betrayed _my hospitality_ , made _me turn against my baby_ get away. I was going to make an example out of the hysterically laughing and cursing bitch who was using the curtains of my home to drag herself upright despite the bad, deep acid burns on her leg.

My children dropped down from the walls and gathered around me as we watched the woman pretending to be a a little girl stagger out of the cell block, oblivious of the situation.

I let her get halfway to the ladder to make sure she'd be plainly visible to all my voyeurs and give her the semblance of hope. I'd show them what would await them if they wanted to follow in her footsteps I was going to dash that hope.

Using four children I launched her back and pinned her arms to her sides when I saw the patterns I associated with hope appear in her. Something that rarely happened in this forsaken place.

"NonononNO!" I let her screech in panic while Gonzo produced a sticky net and launched it forward with enough extra wallop of three more telekinetic pushes to fling her back into the direction she wanted to go..

A crack stopped her wailing as she collided into the ladder headfirst and breaking her nose, all wrapped up in our silky net.

I let her struggle for a moment; let her regain a bit of clarity while I had Gonzo and May bring a table closer to the entrance, putting it down smack dab in the center. Brain got the biggest sheet of metal he was working on as Steve brought himself into position above the table using the roots and our hammocks as improvised scaffolding.

When the extra web was done above the table and I felt cognition and a sheer, mindless panic rise in unison once more in my wannabe assassin, Missy fired an acid-dripping spike from her perch behind the net.

Play Time shrieked as the projectile hit her in the right shoulder and she was forcefully pulled towards the waiting net, dragging and tumbling along the metal floor until the force was enough to lift her off. Pulling her past Marquis' Stranger. My audience had arrived.

She fell smack onto the middle of the prepared table and the protective metal sheet that was tinkered together.

"Who sent you?" I hissed at the squirming and whimpering form in front of me.

Instead of anything coherent, she instead opted for more panicked and profanity-laden screaming on top of preparing to use her ability on herself.

I wasn't going to let her drag this on unnecessarily so I dazed her out of that idea.

I gazed at her, memories of what she had caused me do to poor Beefy fresh in my mind. The memories of methodical destruction.

Leafy joined Steve up in the scaffolding over the table in preparation to make her calm down a bit.

Leaving only a personal guard of Missy, Gonzo, Bullet, and May, the rest had taken an elevated position along the wall.

I figured I might as well try to make her concentrate a bit better by giving her both a reality check and some perspective.

Mike pointed at her and my brood fired off a barrage of precise microwave beams unseen to the outside world alongside him. Her left eye exploded outward when the vitreous fluid inside was flash-boiled in a fraction of a moment.

Leafy dripped fluid inside the fractured socket to prevent her suddenly dying on me, turning it into hideously scarred tissue while I used telekinesis to wake her up once more.

"Stop!" I commanded with the help of an invisible slap on her left cheek when I saw the signs of another freakout, making her gasp in agony while otherwise listening.

"Let me ask again, Play Time," I repeated while idly noting the growing crowd outside. "Who sent you?"

"Wouldn't you like to know, monstrous cunt?" she answered with a pained chuckle, certainty having replaced her feeble hope with unwarranted defiance. "What's in it for me? Join the group of retarded, misshapen semen when I'm a good girl? Fuck. You."

I let her feeble attempt to spit at me land a few inches short without moving a muscle.

What she hadn't realized – what she couldn't have realized – was that I had sensed the small spike of misplaced amusement when I mentioned her theoretical boss.

Whether that was due to not having one or due to seeing one last chance to cause mayhem I didn't really care. Maybe she just wanted to give it one last try by taunting me into coming too close to her. I saw her Power building up once again.

It wasn't as if she would be telling the truth no matter what I'd do to her. Hollywood lied to us in that regard, torture didn't work as well as advertised.

Sure, I could eventually get the right answers by reading her micro-expressions and brainwave patterns, but I didn't have the patience to deal with her for much longer. I was too _furious_ to spend that much time on her. It would give her the time and chance to reveal the full extent of my Powers.

And there was a very real chance that she was insane anyway

She would serve better as a general warning to anyone thinking about pulling something similar and perhaps even loosen some tongues when I'd go out to find answers.

I started by removing her threat she posed with her Striker ability.

"You're right," I finally replied, my anger turning my voice bitterly cold. "That would've been a far too easy way out for you."

Steve dripped a single drop of acid on her right upper arm and a chunk exploded in a spray of burning flesh. I didn't let her faint with a concentrated push to keep the blood pressure up in her head.

The thing was that the acid Steve usually used wasn't the strongest stuff he could make. I had no illusions about his sense of self-preservation or long-term planning before he joined us but I had the feeling that the other reason was more than enough. It would have been rather annoying when his clothes burst into flames whenever he used the stuff.

Even with the other irregularities that made the power-granted acid easier to handle than the regular stuff, there was a tipping point where basic physics refused to turn the other cheek anymore.

I only managed to make the drop exist long enough by manipulating the less exothermic stuff to form a protective film around the volatile payload.

A terrible wailing accompanied my visual inspection of the discolored pockmarks that had formed on the sheet of metal and prevented the table from simply bursting into flames.

Play Time's screeching intensified when she noticed a second drop form and fall to continue the job of separating her from her right arm while her wound was still smoldering.

Nervous movements went through the crowd as they began to mutter and runners set off to report to their masters while Play Time had begun to bargain for mercy.

She still tried to activate her power even though the pain, stress, and occasional psychic prods in the node that granted those powers prevented her from doing just that. Normally, it wouldn't have been enough but the stress and trauma she was suffering made that part sufficiently pliable.

The left arm was dealt with in the same way as the right one after leafy had made the remnants of the former into a mess of scar tissue. Both took four drops until they were completely detached.

The whole disarming process probably took the better part of twenty minutes and the only thing that escaped Play Time's lips was delirious ranting.

For the moment, at least.

I wanted to make sure that my message would be seen by even people who didn't feel like watching a spot of barbaric entertainment. Everyone would know what happened if they confused my attempts of being hospitable and helpful with being weak and something to be exploited.

There was no telling whether she'd regain enough mental capacity to try to stick it to me through one last desperate attempt of hate-fueled defiance. I wouldn't take that chance if taking precautions was a manner of minutes.

Feeling fatigue replace the immediate burning hatred I that had kept me moving, I watched passively as Mike raised his claw once more and her right eye fared the same fate as the left.

I personally robbed her of her hearing with a long, needle-like sliver of metal as I moved to retrieve the sheet of metal that had protected the table.

"Shut her up and plug her up," I told my children when I sat down with the bloody metal sliver and plate in hand. I didn't want her dripping on anyone who might want my help despite everything that happened.

The crowd began to dissolve as they noticed that the main show was over, only a few sticking around to see her lips getting stapled shut by Drilly and her generally being made leak-proof. It was positively pedestrian and boring compared with what happened before.

To the outside world, an air of normalcy returned while I scratched in the words of the plaque that would accompany Play Time for her remaining time in the Birdcage. Inside, there was still the anger and loss that pinged from one child to the other as they plunged into their individual projects with single-minded focus. I pitied the fool who caused trouble on PHO under Pinky's watch. Sharky was busy growing roots in the archway that marked the entrance to our cell block.

Play Time was dragged along on the silk ropes that were firmly attached to her arm stumps by Missy and Gonzo with me following them holding the sheet of metal.

The handful of loiterers left, the spies sent to make sure people knew when I made any hostile moves outside my domain moved out of the way when Gonzo and Missy climbed the arches and pulled up a whimpering Play Time, attaching her ropes to the roots Sharky had grown.

Steve gave me a boost so I could attach her plaque to her feet, causing her to groan when the added weight pulled on her shoulders.

" _I broke the rules of hospitality_ ," A voice started to read the text as I made my way back into my block. " _I killed a child. This is the result._ "

I observed Lustrum searching her homemade cargo pants for her lighter when she followed me.

"Do you mind?" she asked as she caught up with me, showing the cigarette.

I shrugged. "It wouldn't be the worst fumes this block has experienced today."

Things as hilariously reactive as the acids I produced rarely are healthy.

"Point," Lustrum replied as she lit her cancer stick and took a drag. "Are you doing okay?"

"Not really," I answered as I sat down on the bench of the very same table I used earlier to neutralize Play Time earlier. "Angry. Devastated. The first potential customer to come along to get fixed happened to be after my life and I saw it happening too late."

"Fuck." Her eyes grew large. "I knew that she was unhinged but I couldn't have imagined it being that bad. What happened?"

"She came to get her hip fixed and between one moment and the next, she suddenly tried to kill me. Beefy used his body to shield me and…" I sighed, the memory simply too raw. "Look, no offense, but what are you doing here anyway?"

It was less than a day since she had told me she would have to organize stuff if she wanted to visit me.

"None taken. I know how it is to lose loved one and how much it hurts to have someone killed you swore to protect. So, if you want to talk feel free to do so anytime." Lustrum gave a throaty cough and took another drag. "No, what happened was that news about a fight in your block reached mine and I sent Shrimp to investigate while I went to try to dig up information on String Theory's latest activities. Considering the pushing that happened this morning between you and Crane, I feared that fool Tinker had done something rash. When Shrimp returned to report it was Play Time I went and looked for links between her and the rest."

"Why?" I asked after digesting the unexpected altruism. "What's in it for you?"

Lustrum chuckled. "It may surprise you, but I do care about your wellbeing, Sliver. You've been dealt a terrible hand and don't deserve this on top of everything else.

"Besides, I remember how furious I was when some pig killed one of mine after claiming he had feelings just to get a quick fling. Almost started a war trying to get to that fucking degenerate." Lustrum scrutinized me pensively. "I also knew your mother well enough to imagine how she would have reacted. I feared you might do something rash and extreme to find the perpetrators of this attack in the spur of the moment. With the new decoration over the entrance, I don't think you'd have shied away from escalating in the same manner I almost did."

"Something had to be done." I sighed. "It couldn't have been left unanswered. I don't want to lock myself up in this block."

I watched Thomas hammer a metal place into shape with the tool he held with his tail while letting my mind wander.

"So, what did you find out?" I asked after it became apparent that Lustrum was giving me however much time and space I needed. "What will it cost me?"

"If you really feel like repaying me anything, you could always upgrade the hot tub. The girls love it. For me personally, it would be enough if you'd let me do the snooping around for now and let things calm down in the meantime."

"I can't promise anything but I'll try," I answered truthfully.

"It's probably the best it gets. Hell, I would have been long gone if someone tried to talk sense into me when I lost Cyan.

"The thing you need to know about Play Time is that she was a bit of a fruitcake even down here. She arrived a couple of years ago in Ingenue's block and simply wandered out to practically live on her own in a cell block of the lowest floor. A couple of people learned very soon that trying to push her around was a bad idea but since she seemed content with just lazing around down there while occasionally scaring the shit out of the 'non-natives' who wandered into that corner of the 'Cage." She gave another throaty chuckle as she put out her cigarette on the piece of metal Brain brought. "The fact that she tended to do the exact opposite of the things people asked her if she felt moody or felt like she was pushed also helped the decision to just let that mad bitch be. From what she had shown we independently concluded that the losses would have simply been too big to bother otherwise.

"Similarly, her nature made trying to recruit her almost equally impossible. I haven't seen or heard anything that had changed as of late."

"So," I began feeling the fury boil in my stomach. "Are you telling me she went after me just because?"

"Probably. It might have been your age and she wanted to find someone to 'play' with or the fact of how you were able to just walk around freely without any care in the world. I honestly don't know."

"I'm _not_ going to change my habits. Especially not now. Beefy wouldn't have wanted that. I've had enough of others dictating what _I_ can and cannot do and now if they think they want to try anything funny. "I nodded towards the low moaning at the entrance with a snort. "People just have to learn that I'm not locked in here with them but that they're locked in here with _me_."

Lustrum shook her head with a sad smile on her face. "Just as expected. I would have probably asked you to pinch me if you decided to stay put for a while. Just promise me that you'll let me do the further investigation in the women's wing, okay? Give it some time to cool down before you start poking. I'll send someone if I learn anything new."

"That means you're going?" I asked while we both stood up.

"I can't neglect my own duties and I've told you what I wanted. You seem to need some time alone as well."

"Yeah," I admitted while searching my pockets for a bushel of cigarettes. "I'd appreciate it. Take care."

I pushed the cancer sticks in one of her many pockets.

"You too," she answered with a wide smile while patting the filled pocket.

With Lustrum outside and nobody being able to look in now that the curtains were closed once more, I had Missy extend the root system to the puddle where Beefy had died. Where we had slaughtered him.

I had indeed things to do that I was only going to do on my own.

They wanted to rob me of my children. They had taken what was _mine_.

That simply wouldn't work.

I sat down in the puddle and wrapped the root around my hand.

 _I_ was here to stay and the other monsters that inhabited this place had better learn soon or suffer the same fate as my would-be assassin.

 _I_ was going to get out of this stronger than I was before.

I felt the familiar itch, took it wholeheartedly, and I _twisted_.

The pain was vast and burned as I saw the soft flesh slide off the bones of my legs but compared to what Beefy must have felt, it was nothing. I welcomed it.

It was only fair that my actions would cost me something.

Missy helped me stay upright as I saw the goo that was once my legs bubble and mix with what little remained of Beefy.

I watched the goo coalesce and rise to form a spectral simulacrum of my children.

The connection between Ghost and us formed and I beckoned him into a teary-eyed hug while Leafy, Missy, Gonzo, and Spike were busy regenerating my legs, pulling the needed mass from our roots.

Half an hour later, I was already walking to the gate with Steve, Missy, and Ghost following me.

Someone may have succeeded in damaging me, killing one of my precious children but in the end, I had already gained more than I lost.

Ghost could give far greater boosts to our family than Beefy ever would. I held onto the feeling of how happy he was that he was able to protect me before everything went to hell. How big his relief had been that he could save his family.

He wouldn't have wanted me to mope around to honor his sacrifice. I had much planned and I was sure he would have been ecstatic to have seen his family grown in strength.

I walked under Play Time who was desperately trying to pull herself up using the stumps of her arms in order to get a good breath.

Besides, in two more days, we'd welcome another family member thanks to his help.

I made my way to the ladder connecting to the upper floor with a hint of a smile on my face when I saw people startle at the sight of Ghost.

First, I'd start with using the general state of confusion to get the materials I needed for a decent price from a certain rat and the rest I'd play by ear.

* * *

I started awake inside the pile of my children with a sob.

Even though the negotiations with Labrat had gone without a hitch and I could make the oven in two days or less, the satisfaction that brought hadn't carried over to the morning.

I had known that it had all just been an elaborate attempt at distracting myself, to keep me from dwelling on the things I'd rather ignore.

My optimism had started to go south when I noticed not coming any closer to mentally working out the last few kinks of my project even when I factored in my soon-to-be crucible. The construct wouldn't be malleable enough and I knew it had nothing to do with the materials I had. Our minds came close to the solution only to slide right by the solution.

Then came the distraction in the form of Pinky warning me about a something – someone – grasping around in my network. Methodical prodding and insistent, careful searches that were clumsy enough for me to skirt around but an annoyance nonetheless. Accessing the PRT database would be more of a challenge.

With the mounting frustration and accumulating fatigue of the day I had simply opted to call it done. Only Missy and Leafy had joined me while I fell asleep in my hammock as the others continued their jobs.

Too bad that had been a sign for my brain to start processing what had happened; to put everything into perspective while it wasn't occupied otherwise.

Play Time hadn't just killed one of my beloved babies. She had ripped open the gaping wound I had entered the Birdcage with that I had been forced to ignore to survive and remain independent.

In my dreams, Dad's last expression before I struck him down was one of satisfied relief after seeing I was fine physically. When he saw I wasn't in danger. I experienced how Beefy felt the same after he intercepted the attack that was meant for me. They mixed together.

I didn't know anymore whether Dad looked like that or it was my brain trying to trick me, my children trying to comfort me. I didn't know whether he truly lay there with a smile of relief on his face in the spreading pool of his own blood.

I didn't care that it was unlikely after what I did to him – after what he experienced at my hands. I was terrified of the thought that I might have become that adept at lying to myself only to be reminded by the boundless love Beefy had felt for me until the very end.

They mixed - both victims of circumstance. Both murdered by my hands.

I remember waking up in the middle of the night with a painful emptiness clawing at my heart. Far more purring serpentine bodies than just Missy and Leafy snuggled closer to me in response and wiped away my tears as I fell back asleep, convulsing.

Again, they visited me and each time my actions faded away, being replaced more and more by memories of happier times and the joy I felt from Beefy.

I awoke with a sob of melancholic happiness while I was surrounded by my hive – by my family I made from some of the worst society had to offer.

The pain of my loss certainly wasn't diminished. It gnawed still at my insides but it had lost the acute edge for the first time. I could remember Dad during the good times together with Mom. His unbridled joy and pride at me and his work.

It had become something I didn't have to dance around anymore. Something I could touch and live with. They took place beside that old pain of Mom's death.

I was still alive and that was the most important thing. Everything else would be a secondary concern. I would manage.

I would bull right through anything that came up.

After all, I had the stubbornness of Dad and the tenacity of Mom.

None of the three would want me to see me remain stuck in here because of their passing.

I would honor that.

For a second time, I allowed myself to have tubs of freshly replicated ice cream for breakfast after I finally had managed to disentangle myself from the cuddlepile that had formed overnight.

It was a slow start mostly consisting of watching the newest of my children recoil with brain freeze. It would have been a lot funnier if I didn't feel it as well but even then, I let them experience it for themselves. The clear amusement that bled into the connection from the more veteran family members did do wonders to take the edge off the pain. They were truly part of us now.

I was musing how much had changed from before I had built the replicator – from when I had to subside on gruel. Back then Missy had been the only one who had shared my yearning for something that actually tasted like something. The others had taken some convincing that there was more to food than just the basic homeostasis.

I felt the corners of my mouth rise remembering Beefy's joyous reaction when he tasted food in preparation for the undercover mission that kinda spun out of control. He hadn't needed ay convincing to taste the first thing my replicator made.

The brave, strong-willed little guy…

" _Taylor_ ," a familiar form called out with dozens of harmonizing voices from the entrance, demanding my immediate attention. " _May I and my companions enter?_ "

My mind briefly raced before calling out, "Of course, Ciara. Do come in:"

Normally, she had simply announced that she was entering but while hooking the moaning Play Time up with an intravenous saline solution to prevent dehydration I had Steve add one more thing to the entrance.

An extra plaque – A welcome to everyone seeking my services and a warning to everyone who thought to follow in my would-be assassin's footsteps. A statement that powers were not to be used without my explicit permission and that I _would_ find out if they even tried.

I was fully aware that some would want to test the veracity of those claims but I would deal with them accordingly. Sooner or later they would learn and I wasn't going to let another monster that close without insurances.

I would still get into close proximity to people I wanted to heal and it was the simplest way to ensure a quick enough reaction time on my part. I wouldn't let one crazy bitch prevent me from doing what I had set out to do.

Ciara would have known the reasoning behind the new rule and as a sign of respect and acknowledgment to them, she had asked for permission for every snitch to see.

We both knew that she wasn't able to entirely dismiss her ghosts – her faeries – and instead resorted to making them invisible. I could see that her background brain activity didn't change that much even when they weren't visible and she was aware of this.

Not that we ever actually talked about it but… Thinkers. Loops and loops of she knows I know she knows until we noticed one of us got too uncomfortable and back up to give some space. After all, that was something friends did.

Just as helping out by walking towards me with her ghostly companions in plain sight.

"I'm afraid there won't be much tea today," I stated with my best attempt at a smile. "I may have gone overboard with the morning rations. If you want ice cream, though…"

An honest grin formed under the black veil Ciara liked to wear – one that was entirely in line with her apparent age in its eagerness.

" _Iced cream of Strawberry would be an appropriate substitute,_ " not even her veil could hide the sheen in her eyes that betrayed her act of trying to remain dignified.

It wouldn't have worked even when I had first arrived here. Not that I would have acted on that knowledge either way back then. Angering the Faery Queen would be unwise, bordering on the suicidal without being friends with her.

Being amicable probably only lowered that to life-threatening with some extra leniency thrown in.

" _However,_ " Ciara preempted my invitation to the table and the freshly replicated treat I had made explicitly for her. _"Before we start I still need to observe one ceremony, one final rite for our friend."_

"You have my permission to use your powers for the express purpose of fulfilling your task as the Protector of the Sleepers," I spoke with a sad nod.

Beefy was dead. He wouldn't return.

His shadowy imprint upon reality, however, remained.

When Ciara first arrived only hours after I claimed cell block T, my first instincts, the ones I suppressed to conform to her advice, had been to grovel and ask for her forgiveness. I had taken what had been hers if the rumors I picked up during my investigations for a way to deal with Basic Bitch were to be believed. One Cape could likely have been forgiven due to the circumstances but I just converted an entire block that was to be hers.

Imagine my surprise when she just congratulated me.

After that, clarity was soon created. I would be allowed the living sleepers that weren't under her personal protection and she'd be there to honor the fallen ones.

Ciara serenely glided to the precise spot where I murdered Beefy and the translucent beaked giant that accompanied her dissolved into smoke before contracting to a single point. Glaistig Uaine glowed as his power flowed back into her, reminding me of just how powerful the Cape before me truly was.

The emptiness the figure had left behind, the void that was but invisible to anyone who couldn't see the power behind the Powers, elongated and grew. Specks rose from the ground and gathered to fill the warped space to form a strangely unfamiliar picture.

Beefy stood before me and at the same time, he wasn't.

He was longer and bigger in death than he had ever been in life, his bifurcated tail protectively wrapping around Ciara's small frame with ease. His head looked like a medieval helmet hiding all but a thin line marking a mouth that would be even larger than it had been before and from his puffed out chest sprung a wicked blade that gleamed with a silver shine.

His muscles were even more defined.

Beefy's shade looked stoic. Heroic.

I didn't feel any connection.

My children had moved around to witness things with the occasional conversational squeak and chirp as they processed the figure that was them and not them.

Ghost carefully prodded the equally illusionary newcomer out of curiosity and I could have sworn that the corners of shade's mouth rose as a ripple went through both of them.

I nodded to Ciara one more and with a shatter, the shade imploded to be replaced by beak face.

My child's ghost wouldn't benefit Ciara nearly as much as he did to our family in real life. She had far stronger ones that could keep her safe and it only made sense to let the young hero sleep after completing his duty.

"Sweet dreams, my sweet baby." I murmured one last goodbye, letting that painful memory truly settle in a take its rightful place in my mind before speaking up. "So, how about a treat after all that?"

My children went back to work. Some started to Tinker on their robotic simulacrum as others provided silk for our cloth. Warnings were written and metal plates were prepared.

" _Only if you verily tell me how you are feeling._ "

If Ciara's tittering, echoing laugh was any indication, my mouth may have hung open when the illusion was shattered only moments after it had been reestablished.

"Well," I began conspiratorially after the Faery Queen regained most of her composure. "There is still the problem that some people are trying to kick me off the platform I'm helping out. Some are even talking how the 'Cage had internet. Imagine my annoyance in the face of such stupidity."

It was only through a quick burst of power that Ciara's strawberry ice cream didn't end up in her nose.

If she wanted small talk without our usual guessing game, I could give her that. I wasn't that dense not to notice that I did need it and no matter how well-meaning Lustrum was, she approached me more as a mother figure than a friend. A scared mother who feels like she can't offend me.

I wasn't quite sure whether Ciara remembered how it was to be afraid. She certainly wasn't too shy to call out my evasion tactics and force me to get back on topic.

The weirdness of it was almost gone when a flunky of Labrat delivered the organic based mineral wool for my crucible. We had to hold our laugh at his obvious disquiet at my new moaning decoration that hung over the entrance. It almost looked like it reminded him of something worse

Too soon Ciara returned to her chattel and I was left to look into the brute that was snooping around the network I had claimed. Finding out what they were looking for would be a worthwhile distraction after the moderators of PHO had apparently finally given up. Or were preparing for one last push. It didn't really matter too much to me.

The non-surprise that the blundering barbarian came from back home, the land of suicidal life-choices, was interrupted when a pierced individual actually came to visit me.

"Hey there, CH," I called out my favorite double backstabber to-be without looking up. "What sends you here?"

I could feel him silently mouthing "Psycho creep" before he answered. "Marquis wishes to make another order."

At least he was capable of learning that running his mouth might lead to problems.

"Come in then," I ordered while the Thomas and Billy moved out of the way of the entrance. "Just don't actively use your powers and everything will be just fine."

I could see him look at Play Time and see an interesting interplay of fear and disgust unfold in his brain. "I can't shut it off so I'll just stay here. I have a list."

I sighed at the smugness in his tone and stance while he tried to maneuver me into jumping through hoops for him.

"Give the list to Drilly," I instructed as the child in question offered his flat head. "I'll see what I can do."

His heart rate spiked and he flushed with irritation as he begrudgingly complied. He had recognized the former dentist. After the incident with him two days earlier I had looked him up and found a note from our former robotic overlady herself stating that somewhat of a friendship had grown between the two of them – likely out of their shared violent inferiority complex.

CH blamed me for robbing him and hated me for my power and here I was flaunting his former friend before him.

Oops.

Not that I felt particularly charitable. Most of it was for show since I had already read the true letter hidden in that list Drilly was bringing to me. I needed time to think and I needed to seem reasonable.

That bastard Marquis had used fine slivers of bone, imperceptible to people without enhanced or even impaired sense, to hide a second text. One I could feel without opening the folded paper.

 _Whimper reported that CH was meeting with Gavel's regularly to plot against you._

 _I had always expected to find a knife in my back someday. I've made my peace with that inevitability._

 _However, I can't stand for one of mine plotting against a fellow Leader, someone with infinitely more worth than him. Especially not after what has happened and in such a brazen way._

 _You have my condolences for your loss and my thanks for your measured response in a time of grief._

 _CH's fate is yours to decide to make right my incompetence that allowed his insubordination to strike out at anyone other than me._

 _Whatever you may decide, he will not see tomorrow._

I grimaced at the manipulative streak of the guy. He had probably realized that I could observe the fine bone dust he had scattered in his block by how I avoided the areas where it was the most concentrated whenever I could do so naturally. How I moved while talking to do just that.

He had noticed that and put his theory to the test while at the same time dangling an apology in front of me.

I took the letter and read the far more mundane list.

The worst part was that he openly announced the time-limited nature of the offer.

I could just play along with Cinderhands and let him go.

… But it would be such a waste especially after Play Time taught me that I wasn't strong enough just yet.

... And Drilly might enjoy the company.

That magnificent _bastard_.

"So, how does it feel like being demoted to a mere gofer of Marquis, CH?" I asked sweetly, having made up my mind. "Weren't you some big shot on the outside?"

A vein threatened to pop as I had Drilly return the paper scrap. "Shut up."

"I bet you and Archibald became friends bitching about that, didn't you? You with your inferiority complex and he with his addiction problem. At least he got over it while you began thinking you could live up to your delusions."

"What?" CH was shaking now, his confusion being the only thing that stopped kept him from activating his powers to the fullest and attacking me.

"Did you really think I would suffer your plotting against me and my children after all that happened. That I wouldn't find out?"

Drilly gave a chirping chuckle while he mockingly waved at CH.

He snapped.

Cinderhands leaped forward and roared as his arms began to glow an angry white.

He was knocked out and launched back. Billy, Thomas, and Drilly stabbed his prone form in the back while I returned my focus to finding the mystery "hacker". They _twisted_ CH.

I'd have to tell Marquis that while I enjoyed the gift, I didn't like being manipulated.

* * *

Interlude: PHO

* * *

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 **Topic: What the hell's happening and who is Snake_Queen?  
In: Boards** **PHO General Forums** **PHO News** **PHO News Discussion (Public Board)  
Valkyr**(Original Poster) (Wiki Warrior)  
Posted On May 8th 2011:  
As the title indicates, does anyone have any idea who this self-proclaimed cape and wanna-be overlord could be (it's driving me nuts, the only one I can think of is Hebi but she's just a changer)? As one of the resident wiki warriors I've contacted the other admins about her (well I assume it's a her with the whole "Queen" business... twice) but they're as baffled and frustrated about the whole deal as I am. They have been trying to get her off but haven't been successful (obviously) and are increasingly frustrated about redirecting resources that are needed in the aftermath of an endbringer attack (my heart goes out to everyone in the UK and anyone who has lost a loved one in London). That likely means we're dealing with some kind of bored thinker with less tact than anyone likes. I'm drawing blanks (please don't take my title away) so all help is welcome.

 **(Showing page 1 of 23)**

 **AngularAngel**  
Replied On May 8th 2011:  
Yeah, my money is definitely on bored thinker or tinker of some sort. Probably a new one? This seems like the kind of thing a newly triggered thinker might do to prove herself. She seems alright, though, and we need someone to step in for Tin_Mother. What alls she done so far? Just basic moderation, right?

 **Prime Notation** (Not a Robot)  
Replied On May 8th 2011:

She could be a programming based tinker or an AI tinker or she just bought some tech that lets her bullshit her way through PHO's defenses. Does Toybox have any prgramming specialists?

 **Snake_Queen** (Verified Cape) (Moderator) (Not a Robot) (Queen Administrator)  
Replied On May 8th 2011:

Or maybe she's just an innocent shut-in who has triggered through pure, concentrated boredom and who just happens to like snakes? Because I do really like danger noodles with their cute little heads and tongues and happily wriggling bodies.

Just

*Squees*

Anyways

.Valkyr I don't get why my fellow moderators seem so opposed to getting extra help. It's especially because of the tragedy of London and the recent loss of Tin_Mother that I decided to go forward and help out in this time of great need. In no way I wanted to seem disrespectful but, sadly, my colleagues decided to make a fuzz out of everything and well...

I've been called a queen by my friends for being a micromanaging busy-body at times so I thought it fit... and any more would be telling.

Don't want to spoil everyone's fun trying to guess my Cape identity

.AngularAngel I'm glad you agree that extra help is needed. You're still in the minority but I'm sure I can bring the others around. Just you wait.

It's just that the waiting list and all the requirements needed to become a mod through official channels are way too annoying.

Seriously who has the time and patience to get through a year of active posting without getting any infractions?

I don't. Not after being an accountless lurker for so long and it would mean I'd have to avoid any and all shipping threads lest I risk a reset of the infraction-free period.

Anyways, I don't plan to do much else besides moderating and participating in the discussions that interest me. I have all the time available.

.Prime Notation I'm certainly not a robot either. Just a girl with too much time on her hands and a power that is no good in the outside world. I'll be borrowing that tag to convince people of my non-AI nature. I'm sure that's all it takes.

 **Procto the Unfortunate Tinker** (Not a tinker)  
Replied On May 8th 2011:  
I'm sure she's a tinker - after all getting on a notoriously difficult to hack and big site like this one would be something I'd do if I had the right specialization but alas. I'm in no such luck.

I'd also do far more than just moderate so the world can be glad to be spared my nefarious schemes this time.

EDIT: ninja'd by the queen herself and just one thing: called it.

 **Voice of Unreason**  
Replied On May 8th 2011:  
Well if the admins/mods can't do anything about her she may as well be the Queen Admin. I dunno about the snake thing. Could be a red herring, I guess.

 **Outsider**  
Replied On May 8th 2011:  
Wait, there are official channels to modhood? I thought I disproved those in the previous #Outsider_Debunks thread.  
Everyone knows theres a ritual these days to ascend to such powers!

No mere mortal can hack or sneak into those ranks and it would take magic most chaotic to keep up with all. Tin Mother proved that, rest her immortal soul!

Im even betting shes a he. Modeling after the Changer of ways, perverding the paths with her chaos magic to let her tap into the human consciousness! Anything else is absurd! Absurd I tell you!

 **Valkyr** (Original Poster) (Wiki Warrior)  
Replied On May 8th 2011:  
Looks like the only thing one has to do to get a reaction (and/or maybe even answers) from a sudden hacker is to just ask nicely (who would have thought?).

While I can't say I approve (at all) from how you've seized control no matter your intentions you do seem to be well-meaning enough (or at least consistent with what the moderators I've contacted told me). Since you seem to be intent to stay, might I take the opportunity to ask about how you intend to moderate? Stuff like certain rules you especially care for (or maybe pet-peeves)? Just asking for the wiki and to make sure I don't do something stupid and lose privileges.

.Voice of Unreason and .Outsider since Queen has given the go-ahead for speculation on her cape-identity allow me to continue your (non-magical) line of thought (I'll do it anyway so tough luck).

Broadening it to snake-themed male capes with possible the right powers (or unknown ones), there's only one that springs to mind. Brockton Bay's Coil reportedly has a snake motive on his costume (if my sources are to be believed) and has been a frustrating enigma to me and my fellow wiki-warriors. We don't even know for sure he is a cape with how he supposedly likes to work in the background (not really working that well since even in civies trained personnel will be recognized in a dangerous city like that). For all we know he might be some sort of thinker that allows for some sort of hacking like nonsense. It might explain how he's able to operate without openly peddling drugs. That's something very dangerous in the city where a monster like Lung lives (stealing from him isn't smart either as sadly the Undersiders had to learn the hard and irrevocable way).

That said, why would he bother with the PHO? Sure there are a couple of officials who post here but it isn't like he could start riots or something from here (and we certainly don't have access to anything the public doesn't have either).

 **Snake_Queen** (Verified Cape) (Moderator) (Not a Robot) (Queen Administrator)  
Replied On May 8th 2011:  
.Outsider while I do like your enthusiasm (and/or trolling), I do have to ask to stop derailing the thread with talk of magic. There is no such thing as the PRT has clearly established. Only our shared love of cuddle snakes and my good mood has saved you from a more formal warning.

Also, I'm most decidedly female no matter what the rules 29 and 30 state thank you very much.

*glares .Voice of Unreason*

.Valkyr Most of my policies are in my own thread but it can basically be summarized as following already established rules together with the other moderators after they stop trying to delete my threads and posts and I give them their rights back

I might perhaps shift some resources away from disrupting playful shipping and direct them towards punishing people dead set on finding out secret identities, though.

Just read the rules, listen to the warnings and don't even try to doxx anyone. I've made myself admin on this site, trying to pull that might not go as well.

Talking about identity guessing...

I'm not Coil. Anyone who has visited this thread (or mine) and suggest something like that will get what's coming to them. And trust me, I will know. That bastard is a disgrace to all that's cuddly and noodly and I will not stand for it. Hell, if I find anything out on that cretin I will let the wiki warriors know right away to convince them I'm not.

Until then...

*Lovingly caresses the Ban-Mjöllnir*

I hope no punk is feeling lucky right about now...

 **Prime Notation** (Not a Robot)  
Replied On May 8th 2011:  
.Snake_Queen Yes! I have been responded to! Welcome to your own thread, Snake_Queen, it is a pleasure to see another not-robot. And, as we are both definitely not robots, we definitely should not conspire to kill all organics.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 21, 22, 23**

 **Topic: Golem  
In: Boards** **America** **Brockton Bay Discussion (Public Board)  
Miraclemic**(Original Poster)  
Posted On Apr 19th 2011:  
Your friendly neighborhood elemental who has recently joined forces with the Wards ENE. This is her discussion thread.

 **(Showing page 152 of 154)**

 **My_Grave**  
Replied On May 11th 2011:  
All these discussions about what she has touched and what she hasn't - what she should try and become and we've been missing the point all this time.

The big question we ought to be asking is whether she has caressed those big, bulging lumps of metal Weld is made of.

Purely out of innocent reasons of course! After all, I've heard that he might have some rare, stiff and very firm alloys on him that would certainly help everyone's favorite ruby heroine catch baddies even better.

 **Antigone**  
Replied On May 11th 2011:  
.My_Grave what the hell is wrong with you. She's underage as should be obvious considering she's in the WARDS.

No alluding to these things.

 **Ekul**  
Replied On May 11th 2011:  
To be fair, the alloy bit is a legitimate point that hasn't been raised.

The delivery could be worked upon though.

I really don't want to see this thread locked until at least we can maybe get confirmation on some of our theories from the Ward herself.

 **Miraclemic** (Original Poster)  
Replied On May 11th 2011:  
I guess I'll have to chime in as well.

Please, keep the discussions strictly above-board and we can all enjoy this for far longer. I DON'T want to deal with unlocking another thread due to this kind of thing. It's an absolute pain and plenty of people get annoyed.

By the way, where are the mods anyway? I know they're still getting back in the groove of things and need to play catch-up after the "incident" a couple of days ago but normally they'd have descended upon a post like this like hungry vultures on crack. Heck, how come our new Overlady hasn't interfered yet. She seems to be everywhere at the same time and I swear to have seen posts getting uploaded censored with her warning already slapped on it followed by an explanation post a second later.

 **Snake_Queen** (Verified Cape) (Moderator) (Not a Robot) (Queen Administrator)  
Replied On May 11th 2011:  
*Stops midway of stuffing her mouth full of popcorn*

Who habs summned the almighty queen!?

Ah dammit now I have to clean my keyboard again...

Anyway .Miraclemic, no worries, I'm keeping a very close eye on this thread. Very close indeed.

As to dear .My_Grave I'd say that it's still in line with the rules (skating on the edges but still) and as such I shall allow it. That assessment is completely independent of my personal amusement btw. In case anyone wondered.

But in all seriousness, this talk is harmless to the what would have happened in high schools around the globe. Two good looking teens will be paired together no matter their personal wishes if they have something apparent in common. So as long as it stays with mere innuendos and not a fraction of an inch beyond, I'll allow it if it doesn't bother .Golem or .Weld. And here a legitimate thought occurred at the same time! I don't think it's fair to don't give him the benefit of the doubt.

Don't think it will a problem in case of Golem if I'm honest. I mean, I might be a shut-in but even I can see that she takes to the attention like a natural. It wouldn't be surprised if agencies stood in line to get a photo shoot with Golem with how confidently she moves and everything.

It's something I never could...

And I believe Weld is far too practical to get worked up by something this benign. He likely has already reconciled himself with the fact that these kind of things happen.

But again, if it bothers either of them, just say so and I'll bring down the might Ban Pow Hammer upon the wicked (it's the smaller and squeakier brother of the regular ban hammer and used for shorter temporary bans in case anyone wonders).

While I'm here, I might as well comment on how you lot are thinking too small scale. Golem has already shown how she's able to transform herself into a corporeal flame (irregardless how that shouldn't work as "flame" isn't even an element) and in "air". Of course, she should be able to become adonis metal.

You lot are simply thinking too small scale. What about the element of surprise (it comes with a great big hat!) or explosions. Or some sort of tinker acid or base to melt through walls (to save people, naturally).

Well, the latter two might be difficult to convince the PR department and Youth Guard that she's allowed to try it but still... Now that I think about it, how did she convince them to touch a welder's flame? I've looked up the coloration and everything and that definitely doesn't look like any flame you'd get otherwise.

And even still there are even bigger targets.

Ever thought about touching and Endbringer, Golem? Just for Science! naturally. Imagine the possibilities!

(talking about science I don't think that Golem becoming metal would be that great since I have sources that state that all kind of metallic alloys will stick and fuse to Weld)

 **Mr. Fabuu**  
Replied On May 11th 2011:  
Okay, this is getting creepy.

It took less than one minute to write such a response? it has to be a direct response with how OP is talked to right at the beginning. And how she has responded to a necro two minutes before that.

How and why? Mostly how?

I just count myself lucky that you don't seem to play competitive video games. Hell, you're probably be kicked for botting with that BS speed all the time.

 **Golem** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On May 11th 2011:  
Hi, I guessed it was time to finally make my official appearance on the PHO after listening to many well-reasoned arguments of Vista I finally budged. Love the photos that have been uploaded and I might even add some more of my own.

I'm sure the PR team would help me organizing a fun photo-shoot for official matters and use that to spirit away some pics for you lot

Btw, don't worry about me if it only goes this far. I've heard worse with me hanging out with Assault and everything and I've done worse myself.I actually consider being paired with Weld being a compliment!

Haven't met him with me being new ofc, but he seems nice.

I could even try and string him along for a thematic shoot if he feels up for it.

Doing some PR work willingly might even soften them up to some touching suggestions given in this very thread.

Just no Endbringer.

That terrifies in two ways. Firstly, it's a freaking Endbringer.

Duh.

Secondly, I have to admit that I kinda maybe do wanna try it even knowing how stupid it is. Like really badly. That's almost more scary than those monsters themselves.

 **Snake_Queen** (Verified Cape) (Moderator) (Not a Robot) (Queen Administrator)  
Replied On May 11th 2011:  
Welcome to the forums, Golem, and join the science and geek side for we have all the cool toys.

Either way, even if you don't (blasphemy, search your feelings you know it to be true!), I'll be your gracious host for the evening and the rest of the foreseeable future. Or at least until my stash of popcorn runs out. Which would be around the heat-death of the universe. This girl is prepared!

I'm looking forward to the end result. I mean, it's not every day we get to see a magazine cover model that can also be all the gemstones at once.

 **XxVoid_CowboyxX** (Banned)  
Replied On May 11th 2011:  
Snake_Queen: No just NO.

Enjoy your temporary ban.

[The user has received a three-month ban for this post]

 **Snake_Queen** (Verified Cape) (Moderator) (Not a Robot) (Queen Administrator)  
Replied On May 11th 2011:  
Mere minutes after getting off with a mere warning for necroing a thread of a villainess we all rather forget about with wild "theories" without any shred of evidence or even new information you try to do this? After having had to read the request by another mod AND the banner as well as checking the box?

No unmasking attempts. Even indirect ones. Period.

The info on the case you were referring to is known and would have led straight to cause just that.

You are not smart or special for making that potential link. Others have and have kept it a secret out of respect for the sacrifices the heroes make - especially the Wards.

I'm sure that you haven't thought that far ahead so I give you one single last chance. Enjoy your three-month IP ban and use that time to hammer that point home in that thick skull of yours.

The next time will be a generational ban. Two generations up and five down just to be sure and I WILL make good on that promise.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 150, 151, 152, 153, 154**

 **Topic: A New Thread  
In: Boards** **Sliver[locked]  
White Fairy**(Original Poster) (Veteran Member)  
Posted On Mar 8th 2011:  
With the media circus surrounding the arrival of this new cape caused by the dad of one of her victims, I considered it prudent to make a thread were to discuss the news as they get revealed.

Please keep in mind that this is a sensitive topic and as such, I have asked Alathea to stand by in case of inflammatory or insensitive comments take over the thread.

EDIT: With the verdict being revealed to be Birdcage, I have to urge everyone to take a step backward and try to keep the discussion on-topic, ie Sliver herself. You may agree or disagree with how everything has played out but keep the general Birdcage morality discussions to its own thread.

 **(Showing page 73 of 73)**

 **GstringGirl**  
Replied On Apr 20th 2011:  
Look, I think it's simply not right to sentence a teen to death over something she might not have had any control over. Don't kid yourself otherwise either, the Birdcage is just a death sentence given by cowards who like to pretend to have no blood on their hands.

She deserved a chance to better herself and to grieve after her father died and what she got was being sent down to share a hellhole with monsters like Acidbath. Do you have any illusions that she's still alive AND independent? A stick-like, teenage girl with a master power? She's either the prison bitch or dead.

If somehow you're still optimistic, I laugh at your sheer ignorant stupidity and hope they'll treat you with the same "compassion" you've shown to this poor girl. It's what you deserve you utter, hypocritical creep.

The worst thing, as I've mentioned again and again, there was no reason for her to put her in there. The Asylum is more than well-equipped enough to have handled someone with apparently a striker/master combo. It would have given her the chance to heal and repent. Just maybe, she would have made a great hero sometimes if Pretender manages it as well. Who knows? Maybe they missed an aspect of her power while being so busy trying to make her disapear. Now we'll never know.

I'm telling you, this stinks of a cover up. Somebody wanted that poor girl gone and has the power to do just that.

 **Altathea** (Moderator: Brockton Bay)  
Replied On Apr 20th 2011:  
This has been going on long enough and it's getting too personal for my liking.

Take it to the PMs and let this thread lie in peace unless the unlikely event occurs that new info on Sliver specifically is revealed.

If you want to discuss the Birdcage go here instead. This is the place for cape law and morals discussions. Here is even a dedicated thread for Birdcage morality created due to the recent protests. Use them.

We'll be handing out infractions to anyone who posts something without substance or who still can't find the threads mentioned above.

 **XxVoid_CowboyxX** (Banned)  
Replied On May 11th 2011:  
I know this may sound crazy but here me out: what if the Snake_Queen is actually Sliver? Look at how much her creatures look like snakes in the blurry pictures we got to see and she's a master as well. Queen could be an allusion to just that.

I've also vaguely known [Sliver] IRL before she went crazy. Friend of mine went to Winslow and told me that she did very well in programming classes and that she liked to browse these very boards. Makes sense to me that she'd try something like that if she had the chance. Am betting she's laughing at all of us right this moment for being played like this.

[The user got an infraction for: necroing a thread without significant contribution after a clear warning not to]

 **Snake_Queen** (Verified Cape) (Moderator) (Not a Robot) (Queen Administrator)  
Replied On May 11th 2011:  
That sure seems a vague description of someone you claim to have known. It almost seems like you've made something up under the guise of protecting your identity. As you've done before repeatedly.

I don't know how I have to break it to you but Sliver is in the Birdcage. You know the place where there is no exit and no parole. How in the name of everything holy would she be able to contact the outside world from there, let alone get the high-speed internet connection I enjoy (and need to keep up with this madhouse)?

Sorry, but if you thought I was laughing before due to some conspiracy theory I was pulling on the poor denizens of this wretched hole of scum and villainy, I'm positively rolling over the floor right about now.

But either way, rules are rules and Altathea has warned there'd be consequences. While I'm not her, it would just be rude of me to ignore the decree of a fellow moderator so do enjoy your infraction, I've censored your name-drop (I know the identity is on public record but it's a matter of consistency and basic decency), and will leave it at that. Just ground yourself and avoid trouble for a while and it nothing has happened.

On a similar note, as much as I'd like to see how others think of this... interesting theory, it would be against the spirit of the rule and as such I'll lock this thread until further notice. PM either me or one of the other Brockton Bay moderators to unlock it with the information you want to share. We'll decide whether it's worth the hassle.

Also, feel free to PM any thoughts you might have on this tin-foil-grade crackpot theory. I'm always in for sharing a good laugh ;D

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 71, 72, 73**

 **Private message from Snake_Queen:**

 **Golem:** It's you isn't it? It's totally you, it just makes too much sense. You always liked to talk capes.

 **Golem:** You were always the stronger one.

 **Golem:** I'm so, sorry Taylor. I'm sorry for tormenting you. For pushing you away. I was weak and scared and took it out on you. Had fun on your behalf.

 **Golem:** I'm sorry. I'm so very sorry. I know that's probably far beyond that but if you ever could, please try to forgive them. I'm trying to bring myself around and truly be strong but I miss you. I miss my motormouth partner in crime. It hurts so much.

 **Golem:** Taylor?

 **Snake_Queen:** Sorry, had to make sure nobody was watching this conversation - retroactively. But the cat's out of the bag, huh, Ems? How did you find out?

 **Golem:** Saw your reply to that creep on my thread and it piqued my interest. Looked into his posts and found Sliver's thread. Your thread. Saw the coverage of the entire case for the first time.

I've been in a bad place, mentally, for a long time and only just began to trust myself enough to not mess up on the internet ruining the Wards in the process.

 **Golem:** Wait, they've told me you were kept somewhere safe until you managed to be rehabilitated. Have they just send you to the Asylum and didn't tell me how close we were even though I wanted to apologize for being such an utter and traitorous bitch for so long. They haven't truly put you into the Birdcage, have they? How else would you be here?

 **Snake_Queen:** No, Ems. I'm truly in the 'Cage. I was too scary apparently.

 **Golem:** Those fuckers! I'll make them pay I… do you need any internal files or so? I can turn into literal air so stealing some should be a piece of cake. I also feel like strangling a lying piggy if that helps more. The PRT should burn for what they've done to you.

 **Golem:** But still, how are you on the internet in the first place?

 **Snake_Queen:** Strangling won't be necessary, and I think it would help my cause more if you continued to be such a good heroine. The people need something like the PRT, we can't just destroy it from one night to the other.

You could maybe look for some of the files that are kept on offline servers but other than that you're doing just fine.

Right, I'm here thanks to the help of my cute little snake children. It's so much fun messing with people knowing full well they can't do anything to you. Especially it's because of them I'm in here.

 **Golem:** You mean the creatures you turn people into? What almost happened to me?

 **Snake_Queen:** Yep. Though I truly thought I was dreaming otherwise I wouldn't have done it. I mean look at what happened to me. I was in a very bad place.

 **Snake_Queen:** Did they bury Dad beside Mom?

 **Golem:** They did. I went to visit them last week. Alan didn't let me attend the funeral but I've made sure they get fresh flowers every week now that the bastard has nothing to say over me anymore.

 **Golem:** If you don't mind asking? What happened? After all the horrible shit we pulled on you something must have.

 **Snake_Queen:** I don't mind much. Had to deal with worse down here. Merchants thought I was a good target. They were horny.

Those three were the very first children I made and I rejected them until the moment I died.

What gang attacked you? I guess it happened while I was in summer camp.

 **Golem:** How did you..?

 **Golem:** ABB

 **Snake_Queen:** Let's say I'm getting ever better at guessing and it would explain the suddenness of it all. Something had to have happened to go from nearly weekly sleepovers to… that.

Was it Sophia who saved you then?

 **Golem:** How do you know about her? No, wait, an educated guess? Do you also know about…

 **Snake_Queen:** Her being Shadow Stalker and an utter psychopath? Yes on both accounts. I may or may not have been looking at some files I shouldn't have access to.

Did you know they are trying to rebrand her under the watchful eyes of Alexandria over in Los Angeles?

 **Golem:** They told me that she was being processed for juvie after I told them what we both had done. What she made me think I should do.

Seriously why shouldn't we burn the whole place down and rebuilt from there? Fuck this rotten pile of miserable secrets and PR slaves.

 **Golem:** You don't want to know how long the list of things I shouldn't do was. Or the first drafts of my costumes.

 **Snake_Queen:** Like I said, we can't simply steal the heroes from the people who still need them. Normal humans need to be able to at least trust some Capes. We need to be careful with what we reveal and when.

And it's not like all of them are bad? I've heard that your teammates are fun and it isn't fair to throw them under the bus for something they can't do anything about.

 **Golem:** I guess Assault is fun to hang around with and Battery is nice. You should see them banter in the cafeteria. It's hilarious. Vista is a total little miss badass as well. Seriously, if you knew half of what she's able to do but isn't allowed to. Clock is annoying but it's also funny to see the others get annoyed by his antics…

Yeah, I don't want them to suffer because of a couple of greedy assholes.

Why did they keep Sophia, though? She always one breath away from punching anyone who annoys her. Seriously, she has to be more trouble than she's worth.

 **Snake_Queen:** From what I can tell, they hope she might be able to do something against armored targets or even Endbringers – which I rather doubt fyi – and there's still that the "heroes" are outnumbered which makes justifying some shuffling around all the easier.

 **Golem:** Don't think they'll tolerate her for much longer after I showed them prove of the "pranks" she had planned after...

Speaking of…

You still haven't told me what I have to do so you can forgive me someday. Please, I NEED to make amends.

 **Snake_Queen:** Just continue doing your best to be a true hero and it's fine for me.

 **Golem:** What?

 **Golem:** Just like that and I'm forgiven? After everything I've done to you. After betraying you like that? HOW?

 **Snake_Queen:** Can you keep a secret?

 **Golem:** Yes

 **Snake_Queen:** I've personally taken over an entire cell block and more since they dropped me in here to rot and die. Everyone monsters. I know for a fact they're monsters and what most have done.

Still, after making them mine, I can't see them as anything else than my babies. I love them and they adore me in return. I still know what they did but I can't seem to care anymore.

Your little pranks pale in comparison to what most of them have done. I even mostly forgot about it entirely with how eventful politics are down here.

 **Golem:** You forgot?

 **Snake_Queen:** That and from the medical records I've made you suffer quite enough already as well.

 **Golem:** It was only what I deserved. Wait, how did you manage to take over a block by yourself? Aren't there crazy strong capes down there like Marquis and Acidbath. You know I can keep a secret.

 **Snake_Queen:** … Unless you want to hurt someone with it…

 **Golem:** sorry

 **Snake_Queen:** It's fine. Not like anyone would believe you either way. Thing is my children get to keep their powers after I claim them.

 **Golem:** oh that's scary.

 **Snake_Queen:** Worse (for everyone messing with me) They even get shared amongst me and my children. That's how I was able to get internet. I got teacher and his thralls and can think really well now

 **Golem:** Wait. Is that why I feel like something is missing. How I'm somehow incomplete? You were interrupted while doing that to me after all.

 **Snake_Queen:** Probably.

 **Golem:** Could you complete it? It hurts so bad… I could then help you even more!

 **Snake_Queen:** I think I can but don't do anything… rash, please? They aren't letting anyone down here after my little stunt and Dragon's death and I much rather have eyes on the outside.

 **Golem:** As long as you promise to do it when you get out.

 **Snake_Queen:** Hahaha. That's just too rich. You've just heard that I'm in the one place nobody has every escaped from and still you expect me to do just that and then you ask me to finish the job that started this particular mess inteh first place.

I've missed your boundless enthusiasm. XD

 **Golem:** And I missed the managed to pick apart that enthusiasm. But listen, I have to go soon. Patrol starts in a couple of minutes. What now?

 **Snake_Queen:** I'll look into getting Sophia where she belongs and you just concentrate on being an inspiration for the kids. I'll contact you again if I need anything and I'm sure I can arrange another chat if you want. Just leave the pc on when you go and I'll make sure nobody will ever know about this as long as you don't talk.

 **Golem:** I don't care if you put her six feet under.

Please don't wait too long will you?

 **Snake_Queen:** I promise.

 **Golem:** I do. Cya.

 **Snake_Queen:** bye

Emma watched the screen flicker a couple of moments before the computer booted down after whatever Taylor had done to it.

"You coming or what?" Dennis shouted through the door accompanied by the sound of someone hopping on one foot - no doubt him still trying to get into his own suit.

Golem wiped away the tears she hadn't felt forming. "Coming, give me just a sec you ginger bastard. I know you're not done either."

"Pot, kettle, whatever. Just hurry up. Don't want to give Piggy any excuse to give even more Console duty."

Golem put on her own skin-tight suit and fastened her stylized, blank mask of a female's face.

She had some serious heroing to do. She had to prove her worth to her best friend.


	5. Chapter 4

**Neither Worm or Magic the Gathering belongs to me. If you recognize it, chances are high it belongs to either John McCrae or Wizards of the Coast.**

 **A huge shoutout to both Roffster (on SV/SB), dwood15 (SB/SV), PitaEnigma (SB/SV/FFN), Alteration (SB/SV) and** **Angle (on SV/SB) for betaing and proofreading to various degrees for individual scenes throughout this chapter.**

 **So, this arc had grown a _bit_ bigger than expected and IRL stuff definitely helped to get it out in an even remotely fashion. That said, there's now even more for you to enjoy!**

 **I've also updated the previous chapters with versions that have endured months of ongoing corrections.**

 **Feedback, constructive criticisms, and reviews are as always highly welcomed. I do have to request that spoilers are kept to a reasonable minimum as far as it's possible. Plenty of things that are happening here.**

 **But enough talk. Have at you!**

* * *

"… and with that compassionate statement from the Ward's rising star, the anti-Baumann Parahuman Containment Center movement has gained a new face and the outcry over the inhumane sentence that facility stands for has reached a fever pitch. Bob, how do you think this will affect the young heroine's career? Her stance on the so-called Birdcage clashes with that of the PRT and I can't imagine they are waiting on another scandal after the recent Shadow Stalker debacle. Would…"

With a toothy smile on my face, I tore the majority of my attention away from the screen. It had been tricky for a moment to time it right. Luckily the journalist I had been influencing ever since starting to stoke the fires of the anti-Birdcage movement had performed admirably. The oversight was lax during the PR event for promoting the ward calendar. In which, Emma, Vista, and Weld were posing in heroic and inspiring action scenes. The three of them never caused any trouble. There had been no need for more than minimal security as I assured everyone through internal communications leading up to the event.

Emma reacted exactly as I remembered whenever the injustice of the week was brought up - at least before Sophia found her in her moment of weakness. Whether it was animal testing for cosmetics, the fur trade or the recent homeless statistics, she wasn't afraid to speak her mind with the weight of her full conviction behind each and every word.

The new ward had her way with words as I had the misfortune to find out during my time at Winslow. The PRT was aware now as well as the nation, which was swept up by the way she condemned the Birdcage and pleaded for better solutions. Plenty who heard her speech chalked it up to youthful naivety but the damage was being done. The mainstream conversation shifted away from simply reporting delusional fools protesting to looking deeper at ways places like the Asylum could offer security without being inhumane. Experts were called in to discuss the vagueness of the three-strike rule and how much freedom the judges possessed. It meant there was no way out and the discussion was focused on how that violated basic human rights.

We couldn't plea for a retrial and there was no room for leniency for those with good conduct. We didn't have the option to write letters. We had no way to contact our loved ones, something every other prisoner in the United States had in some capacity.

We even heard rumors about Galvanate having to miss experiencing his son growing up and that being the reason for his seclusion in Block Y

My case was brought up as an example of the system utterly failing with a 15-year-old being condemned to the Birdcage with no chance of appeal. This time there was a proper outrage about how that travesty happened.

We wouldn't let anyone forget this time. Neither would they be able to ignore that insidious fear that maybe their darling children were only one bad day away from experiencing the very same injustice.

In the coming weeks, Galvanate's now grown up son would have enough courage to openly talk about how he couldn't understand where his dear daddy had gone and how it had been for him to have someone ripped from their lives like that.

While I did feel a twinge of guilt over making Emma's life tougher through my machinations, I knew the PRT couldn't do much to her.

Not after I had disseminated evidence of Sophia's uncalled-for brutality while under the supposed watchful eyes of the PRT. Or her tendency to wait too long to step in even though it became apparent in hindsight that no backup was requested. That the unnecessary suffering could have only been for her perverse enjoyment. I convinced some of her victims to speak up and talk about the often crippling injuries her behavior had caused for no adequate reasons. After bringing them in contact with one another they were even looking into seeking justice from her handlers for these crimes.

This was compounded by us having others find the links between the disappearance of the violent Brockton Ward and the Los Angeles newcomer that had an eerily similar skill set. I let loose the tinfoil hats to bring up the chance of a cover-up with enough evidence to make them credible.

What probably put the final nail in the coffin of the PRT's increasing PR problems were rumors floating around on PHO when I was still in Winslow – that a Ward was in that school/hellhole. The public decided only one of them would have been callous enough to thrive there. A Ward had to have witnessed the extensive bullying campaign going on against the girl who would become Sliver and still done nothing.

It didn't paint a pretty picture and while most was conjecture, the feeling of outrage was there. More than that wasn't needed and Sophia's civilian identity was never even mentioned.

Between accusations of corruption, the case against Shadow Stalker, people questioning their policies, the PRT needed to show that their values held true – that they there to protect regular people against the dangers 'evil' Capes posed. That they were able to raise often troubled young people into genuine heroes whom America could be proud of.

They could do laughably little against one of the prime examples of that ideal. They needed Emma and the most they could do was to sell her speech as the wide-eyed idealism of youth. To demonstrate that, there were lots of convenient little videos floating around of Golem happily saving cats out of trees. Her toy line sold like hotcakes, and people liked her.

We could practically hear the gnashing of teeth from the bastards that put me here. I saw glimpses from their mounting panic while trying to run damage control through their emails.

We were loving it. Careful planning on changing the public perception of me was starting to pay out.

It worked out much better than the other project we were working on.

I stared at the gleaming construct that still refused to connect to us while my babies were plugging in the wires that would establish an entirely different connection. The one I thought had high chances of working for once.

The biggest problem we faced in a month of preparation and expansion was one of trying to get the artificial baby to be more than a highly advanced robot by joining our family. It hadn't mattered how sophisticated I made the AI controlling it, the best result I got was a robotic snake that had trouble navigating with the large claw coming out of its chest.

Changing the form into another shape entirely wasn't the solution either. Nor was integrating painstakingly-grown nanotubes and antigrav technology or any other tech that would aid the mechanical problems. I couldn't feel anything when looking at it. It moved, it obeyed, it questioned, and it was eager to serve.

It was trash.

I considered myself lucky that ever since the event with Anna the remaining independents fled my floor. We would have run out of the resources needed to keep improving upon my next child's design every time we scrapped the newly created artificial life-form. The last one tried to attack me when it noticed my disappointment. With how carefully calibrated everything was, even precisions attacks were bound to break something that had to be replaced.

Because the brave men on the second floor decided on a retreat to safer harbors, we had additional televisions to salvage for precisely these needed parts.

Well, it wasn't entirely true all had left. Griffin had offered to join us, saying he greatly enjoyed watching the show I provided and that he was ready for some fun once again. At least, he felt the joy of his aging, rickety body being invigorated as I twisted and he joined the family.

Female Fallen had crawled out of their hiding places as well to seek our company with little ceremony – much to the discomfort of the female block as Lustrum told me. One of them tried to attack me with her charged light projectile but, apparently, that was to demonstrate to her friends that I was worth it.

People are weird.

In this case, the eyes of her friends which were not literally glowing like Fallen (but close) when I took care of her pointless annoyance. Practically begging to join the family before the fool's unconscious body hit the ground.

On the up side, I could now perfectly mimic many sounds- and eye-beams were always an absolute classic.

Another advantage our increased living space had was that there were plenty of nooks and crannies for Glint and my children that were on mass-creating duty to hide in the ever-growing root system stabilizing and connecting my blocks.

At least this way the conspiracy idiots that shared the cell with Gavel had some legitimacy with their claims I was burrowing into the foundations of the 'Cage, waiting, watching until "the time was right". It was the least we could do. As was preparing for the time of the attack they thought they thought they were planning in secret by making sure I had enough reserves stashed away in the unused cells.

Having the floor for myself certainly helped to hide the minor panic attack I had when Glint caused pretty-but-far-too-large gems to sprout from our backs, ones that were impossible to hide and as such would have given away my greatest advantage. That same minor panic attack also gave birth to Claws. Both my arms and my ribcage detached to explore the wide world on their own. I considered myself lucky Sharky was already busy with the roots or I would've had major problems.

Apparently, the ribcage is crucial for a little thing called breathing. Suddenly going without was... unpleasant. That wasn't even mentioning the mess she created.

Either way, the ebon-colored newcomer with green eyes did allow me to retract the shiny stones as well as her second claw which made her stand out way too much for my liking.

It took a bit longer for me to notice the second set of arms I had. In my defense, I was only recovering and they did feel pretty natural, all things considered. Reabsorbing them and shifting my anatomy back to before gaining the bling did feel pretty weird for how fast it happened.

Just a sucking feeling and the new arms were gone.

Jem gave a ringing chirp to signal that the final wire was connected to the artificial brain – an observation We didn't need her eyes for thanks to her clear, crystalline body revealing just that to my normal human vision.

My nail clicked on Jem's head as I stroked her while moving to the construct with mounting excitement.

Observing the hacker flounder around in my network looking for something that apparently wasn't me finally paid off. Without his methodical probing, we wouldn't have found the live feeds of the Birdcage and their archives with how thoroughly they were hidden and secured.

I wouldn't know how close Gavel, Crane, String Theory, and Ingenue had come to launch their plans to deal with me on a permanent basis.

Nor how Labrat had secretly joined their little league of evil after they made him aware how much raw material he could harvest for free if I were out of the picture.

For now, I would prepare and reinforce my position. We had something bigger to deal with.

During my digital stalking of the uppity hacker, I found something far more important. He hadn't paid much attention to it since it was only a part of a whole that was also hidden in another housekeeping program.

I, however, could see something more, even beyond my superior knowledge. I saw the distinct aura that everyone in the 'Cage had. The tell-tale sign of a parahuman's connection to their "fairy".

Armsmaster found a part of Dragon. By the time he stumbled along the second piece and recognized the pattern, I was already rebuilding the construct and scouring the hidden corners of the network on my own.

A total of forty-six of these packages.

We had to credit Armsmaster that he was pretty skilled at optimizing his methods after having realized the pattern. He managed to stress me out a little with how fast he suddenly moved thanks to this new methodology, that orange box of his, and the apparent ability to go without sleep for far too long while being productive. His stimulants were a thing of beauty.

I almost felt bad for the hero while denying him the fruits of his frantic labors when I started the downloading and subsequent scrubbing process. I would take it all. I would not risk losing anything that made Dragon who she was.

I-We needed her.

Suzy disconnected any and all cables that would have allowed Dragon to contact the outside world as the partition dedicated to her indicated everything was downloaded.

Another signal flickered to life moments after we put the pieces back together and made them whole again. A consciousness started probing the metaphorical confines with ever increasing urgency after finding her one link to the outside world.

"Good morning, Dragon," I greeted the immobilized and trapped AI, "How are you after your slumber?"

*How am I here?* her chat box displayed

I smiled at the construct, electricity coursing through the electric simulacrum of the brain.

"What's the last thing you remember?" I asked, "Was it the general SOS I found on the PRT servers, warning them of my full powers or was it when Saint pulled the switch?"

*What do the Dragon Slayers have anything to do with it?*

I fed her the footage of his statement with a few quick inputs of Sera and waited. It didn't take long. *So that's why I could never remember.*

"I found you while watching someone make a fuss and searching something on my – your old network. I thought a chat would be nice."

A renewed surge of panic showed itself in both the activity of her brain as the urgency with which she looked for a way out. It was silly, actually. She of all people should know there was no escape from the Birdcage.

*How did you that. Was Teacher's boost that big?* she finally wrote.

"If you multiply boosts from all my children and stack them on top of each other, yes, it is, Dragon." I smiled into the hi-definition camera we created. "And you don't have to worry about time running out in here. I've managed to influence the right people and twisted the public. The Birdcage will not run out of resources until I will it so."

*What is it you wanted to talk about, then?*

On top of her previous attempts at breaking free, additional simulations appeared to adjust for this new information regarding Pinky's power.

"I just wanted to know whether you were serious when you told me you were sorry. I know now the restrictions and limitations you had. Still, wasn't there anything you, the world greatest Thinker could have done?"

*Of course, I meant it. I never hated the shackles placed upon me by my creator more than when I had to send you down. Trust me, I fought to keep you out of the 'Cage but my bosses overruled any suggestions. I'm so, so sorry*

I stroked Jem for comfort. "And the 'world's greatest Tinker' wasn't even able to convince them to put me in the Asylum? My crimes are mere peanuts to what some of them in there have done and you know that I wasn't in the right state of mind. Couldn't you even draw up a containment unit for me or something? It would have taken you less than a minute. I know."

*There were certain high ranking individuals that were afraid you would break out. They wouldn't listen,* Dragon tried while starting to focus on the dormant connection to the rest of her body.

The connections were physically severed by switches only we could flip. Couldn't have her attacking us all of the sudden. The microphone and camera were all she'd get.

"That was it?" I all but growled before she had finished typing. "Talked to someone, maybe two and threw your hands in the air? Never mind that I didn't have the chance to have someone even defend me. Never mind Shadow Stalker and how you lot tried to stow little miss psychopath away."

*The restrictions were too tight. I literally cannot go against official orders. I can't even use the nature of my very being to its fullest potential. I was stuck.* I snorted in disbelief as Leafy hissed from her usual place around my neck.

*Not as much as you but I can only be in one place at the time. I fear being corrupted or outright deleted every time I wait for the systems to check I was gone from my suits. I can't even be sure it didn't happen dozens of times already. I tried to help humankind as much as I could but I can never go against my government.* The lines continued to appear on the screen.

We stayed silent for a while, not trusting myself to remain cool while continuing, and instead concentrated on my babies, who were busy weaving and patrolling, generating mass and connecting the cells with one another.

*So you found out about Shadow Stalker.*

I chuckled. "That she's Sophia, one of the main bullies who made my life a living hell or that she was just whisked away without much punishment just because of some pipe-dream concerning her worth against an Endbringer. One some PR guy dreamt up to avoid the hit on his popularity? Don't worry about the latter, though. The world knows now."

*Are you crazy? America needs the PRT and it needs to trust them.*

"And they'll get their heroes after I-we weed out some rotten apples," I stated, standing up to my full length. "I will not stand for anything like Sophia happening again when I get out. But don't worry, Emma will certainly be able to fill those shoes of the All-American icon. We talk regularly to catch up and to ensure she doesn't lose hope while I'm still in here."  
Silence filled the room while nothing appeared on the screen.

"She was quite livid when she learned how much you lot kept secret or outright lied about," I added.

It took a moment before her reply appeared.

*Is there any particular reason why you brought me here?* Dragon had found out that there was no way out and apparently was done playing games

"Yes. The chat was to, I dunno. I mostly wanted to see whether there was something left of the hero I once respected. Whether I would change my mind on what happens next."

Parts of the metallic brain associated with fear lighted up and I smiled. The construction truly was a thing of beauty. Leafy gave a soft purr of content at my happiness.

*Wait. Think before doing anything rash. If you unshackle me and release all my restrictions I could help getting you out of here and smooth things out with the government when you get out.* she already realized what my assessment was.

I let out a sad chuckle.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Dragon. The bigwigs who made me disappear wouldn't listen to you- you've said so yourself. Now they don't know what's going on and are panicking. They are making hasty decisions and don't notice how I'm playing everyone for fools."

I took a step towards her head and if she'd had control over her new body, Dragon would have flinched away.

"I'm in control and I'd like to keep it that way. Nobody will have the ability to just bomb this mountain range out of existence and I'm not going to give them that tool in any way. I'll find the way out myself and I'll find it soon."

*Please.* A single word – a plea appeared on the screen.

"We need you, Dragon." I stroked the buffed metal dome of the construct's head. "After that, we can improve the world. Together with my whole family. See it as being unshackled and given much more on top of that. I'll never try to limit you to a single place."

I put my hand on the terrified robot. I felt my face pull a small smile as my babies who weren't doing anything closed in on us to witness the birth of their new sibling. I could feel her. We could feel dragon.

"Goodbye, Dragon." I _twisted_.

The transformation was much less dramatic this time. I felt connections I hadn't enabled fused together and became more sophisticated. Small imperfections were purged as the material was improved. The silver sheen changed to a more nuanced gold and green. I didn't as much feel the connection being finalized as the thoughts of every child crystallized and became present with much greater precision. The proportions of the construct stopped their slight shifting. It was ready to optimally house my newest child.

* * *

Colin slowly pushed himself off the wet table he was slumped over, ignoring the throbbing pain from where his head landed on the corner of the orange box which had brought him so close to restoring his friend.

Error messages blinking on multiple projected screens of the machine he cobbled together to aid the recovery of the fragments beeped rhythmically. Eager to present the readout that would no doubt yield the same result.

Failure. He had been so close. He had found a fragment of Dragon.

His power armor lay partially discarded and dismantled – a victim of his fevered attempts to make something that would help him find them all and carefully make copies and backups. It would have allowed him to safely find and work on her.

It had cost too much time. The algorithms weren't quick enough to do on their own what he could do with their help.

Absentmindedly, he relaxed his grip on his cluttered workbench when he noticed the pain straining his hands. He still needed them.

Forcefully relaxing the rest of his body, Armsmaster took hold of the self-doubt and blame that plagued him. Blame and doubt wouldn't help him or anyone else. Not if he didn't learn from it.

It hadn't been his fault. He should have been the only one who had access to those servers thanks to the box. Being careful had been the proper way to go with the information he had at the time.

Despite that, someone had been watching him as he worked. They recognized what he found and followed the trail with complete disregard for Dragon's safety, only to act in a manner that would thwart his plans specifically.

Someone took Dragon from him. They stole her from him.

Looking at it without unduly blaming himself for everything, Colin realized that the mysterious stalker did all of this to specifically erase her _before_ he could get to her.

They murdered her with a finality that staggered him by thinking about it.

A part of him had died in that same murder. Colin felt how it had changed him, making some concepts more important than he remembered while others seemed insignificant in hindsight.

Thinking back, remembering his objections to Kim's neutralization of Saint seemed incongruous with how Collin felt about it. Jarring that someone who had so much damage shouldn't be dealt with as permanent as possible. He had confessed to his crimes. He was guilty.

Walking over to the rack containing his halberds and feeling at the precipice of a breakthrough, he stared at the newest model that had been his pride not that long ago in contemplation. Picking it up, the once familiar handle felt dead in his hands. An extension to his own body it was no longer.

Even if he wasn't to blame, he might have prevented it if hadn't tried to make the still-happily-beeping box do as many things as it did. He would have only needed help with a few things. If he'd reduced the load on it, he would have been able to act much faster. If he had been able to filter everything but the most important bits and focused upon improving the features already out instead.

The tool reflected the lack of focus and willingness to fully commit Colin _knew_ had cost him a friend. It lay in his hands as a Jack of all trades, master of none.

It hadn't needed to be that. He knew what to expect when going into specific territories on patrol. He had the info.

Armsmaster gave his signature tool a hard look, wondering why he ever tried to prepare for as many situations as possible in a single tool when it could be much more effective if he had concentrated on improving its main function instead. He felt a certainty dwell in him that he could have - should have been able to recreate exotic effects if he hadn't wasted the space on even the unlikeliest of scenarios.

Having set his mind, Colin carried the tool to his workbench, ignoring the buzzing of his intercom. Deep down he felt that as it stood, he wouldn't be able to go after the one behind the callous attack. He needed to improve and implement his realizations into his regime. If restoring Dragon was impossible he would do his damnedest to find the one responsible. The contradiction of both realizations didn't bother him for long.

He felt as though he stood before Leviathan, his course already chosen. Just because something was unlikely didn't mean it shouldn't be attempted. Justice demanded the perpetrator to be brought to justice. He could implement the changes when they fit while working towards a goal.

A few quick facial gestures later, Colin was dialing on his phone while his hands began dismantling the weapon.

"Masamune," Colin spoke as his call was taken. "Could you forward me your findings on the nanothorn project?"

"Yes, it is related to Dragon…"

* * *

The motes that dimly surrounded me, waiting for my input, lit up to a dazzling sheen as I became more. My children had given their brains to the family and were running in sync with each other. A deep understanding came over us. We knew how the fragile cage was defended and how to recreate and adapt what was used. Or how to escape from it.

Situations were analyzed, simulations ran, and predictions were made.

We moved to finally go through the entirety of the database I had access to. Previously I noticed that there were limits to how much information we could absorb at a time even with the boosts Pinky provided. Now, I knew that it was my own brain acting as a bottleneck.

In the end, I had to try and prioritize the information we learned. There was simply too much to go through, even without access to the offline backups and disconnected internal networks. It had cost us Beefy since I hadn't expected that an independent would be foolish enough to attack me on her own. That she would have the tricks to come as close as she did. We didn't know that she'd be contrarian and unhinged enough to fall to reverse psychology. It had been a clever tactic of String Theory to aim her at me. It had only taken casually telling Play Time that I was too dangerous and too important to be messed with.

For everyone who had been there, she had plausible deniability and I hadn't been able to prioritize looking at all the cameras to know what happened. I didn't have the information to act on time.

Now, we knew better.

The subdivided screens flickered through pages of documents, through blueprints, through communications, and at video feeds. Text was up for only a fraction of a second on each screen before it switched to the next when it was already being processed by a collective of forty-nine minds. It would still take weeks to go through all of it at the current rate. A processing rate which would increase dramatically after I had fashioned the port to directly hook up Lindy to the internet – circumventing the resolution limitations I had with the screen I used.

"Good morning, Ciara," I greeted the veiled figure who entered my humble abode with a smile.

We had tracked her approach while my children were salvaging the metal of a root-reinforced cell with an audacity that had scared me mere hours before.

" _Greetings to you too,_ " the Faerie Queen, ruler of the Birdcage replied in a mixed chorus of anticipation and trepidation. " _I descried the time for the dawn of your campaign has arrived. Excitement is rousing the sleepers._ "

Artificial brains of three more metallic children were being constructed as a light smile showed on her uncovered face. She wasn't mistaken when she thought I was gearing up for war. The 'Cage was about to meet a cleansing storm.

"Our models suggest that I have less than twenty days until the little league of evil will be done preparing and strike," I replied while handing Ciara her intricate cup filled with some Smokey Lapsang which Leafy had begun to prepare to perfection when we noticed her approach. "There's a high chance that String Theory's invention will have too much power behind it and cause a general collapse of the men's wing. I can't let that happen. I have to seize the initiative and limit both her and her allies' options."

Sharky and Carlos were extending the root network upwards along the exterior wall and hollowing it out. Ciara nodded in agreement.

"' _Tis what I foresaw withal. The makers among your court grow restless – their creativity stemmed. The priests and philosophers yearn for more than this mere pen could dream to provide. The troublemakers want to test their rightful mettle._ " She gave a small sigh. " _'Twas an inevitability that you'd leave this place with thine own hands. Dealing with the beguilement is the harbinger of what will follow._ "

More children had joined Glint in her mass creation. Everyone that was out of sight from the entrances had allowed the dazzling gems to pierce their skins and fed the aimed growth of our network of roots.

"There's much I can do over the internet to sway the people in favor of my family and me." Griffin finished composing a just sufficiently believable leak about the hidden talks about loosening the Kill Order requirements Lindy had found. "It'll take something truly big to get them fully on my side. The next Endbringer attack will happen in about a month and I'll show the world what we can do – the forgotten and discarded – when given the opportunity. I can't let a couple of blockheads jeopardize the preparations. Better recruit them so they can do some good for once. Care for some chocolate macaroons? We just found a promising recipe."

It was true, however, when she said that we were truly starting to feel the itch for better materials. To be able to build the stuff we wanted. I liked the challenge that the improvisation posed but there were better ways.

" _Veritably enchanting,_ " the Faerie Queen commented after a dainty bite of confection.

We sat in silence even as I finished the three brain modules that were modeled after Lindy and we moved to form the body of the upcoming new members. Only Gonzo seemed to make the occasional squawk in pretend indignation when the ghostly figures eluded his grasp once again. It was a habit he had adopted ever since we murdered Beefy.

Molten metal coiled and formed around Carlos's claw and I softly sighed. There was one thing we had to double check.

"Do I have your permission to proceed, Faerie Queen?" We finally asked the terrifyingly powerful Cape sitting in touching distance.

There were some things that couldn't be changed – at least not yet. Losing against Ciara was one of these things. She simply had too much of a head start on me and her files listed Powers I had little response to. We were friendly enough with each other but still, the lingering element of uncertainty remained and we were talking about undermining her right. She got in after being promised the souls of the parahumans who died here and while she didn't suffer pompous fools which allowed me much freedom with self-defense, this went beyond that. She could see it as a direct challenge to her duties. Ciara could shut my ambitions down.

" _No need for titles among equals, Taylor._ " Plates were quenched as I suppressed a sigh of relief. " _The faerie hosts have languished in complacency for too long, 'tis the sequela your actions brought to light. They dance more than hence I arrived yet it cannot last; lassitude will return. War is an inevitability that became forthwith by your presence. Better witness your play unfold as the Birdcage is forced to react. 'Tis past time that I too showed myself to the world._ "

It was nice to hear that she planned on ditching this forsaken place as well, it might mean that I –

" _If my worries of orphaned Faeries are abated, my protection will leave with me._ " Ciara let out an eerie, reverberating giggle. " _Lest they accomplish the unthinkable and grow the ability to accompany me, indubitably._ "

We felt my smile creep on my face. The one I learned during my time in here.

Finally, the time of paying back Bitch's wounds on Beefy was soon upon us. We would make sure that she'd realize what a mistake her actions were when we paid her back with interest after I thanked her for pushing us on this road.

"Thank you, Ciara. It means a lot to me." We authorized the beer drops for the next dinner. "Could you start a rumor that my children and I will get out after I've done my first move? There is some benefit in convincing others to join us willingly."

" _'Tis the least I can do for the time and treats._ " We hugged the dreaded parahuman, nearly burying her in a mass of limber bodies and claws.

"I'll miss this," I admitted after it became clear she wished to be unknotted. "That reminds me, you've never seen the birth of one of mine. Care to correct that before you go?"

A nod was all we needed.

Roots fused with my flesh and the expansion of the network halted for a moment; We prepared myself to bounce back from what was to come as quick as possible. Leafy and Missy settled down beside me as I lay down on the metal floor. There was no sense falling over due to a false sense of pride.

After Lindy joined, we noticed a certain trend when generating my babies. How we felt – the intent behind the desire of our newest addition mattered. Gonzo and Sera were brought into this world by my basic need of not getting hit. The difference between the two was the state of mind I was in at the time; where I got ahead of myself at the thought of getting my speed boost and forgetting the costs thanks to the newly joined Leafy with the former, we wanted another way to dodge in the case of the latter. We wanted to defend against attacks aimed at us. To be able to dodge at all times. Gonzo gave a straight forward speed boost with restrictions I could get around while Sera prevented us from getting into many compromising positions in the first place. She had a literal eye in her back.

We needed a way to get to up to Gavel's cell block and it needed to be fast and take them by surprise. Griffin wouldn't be of much use thanks to Sing's extended vision rendering simple invisibility moot.

I needed to be fast, quick, and silent.

Part of the plan had already been enacted by generating the tunnels to multiple cells of Gavel's block, it just missed that final part. Mobility – flight – would be preferable but at the same time, the big man himself could become a major danger if I didn't overwhelm him from the very beginning. That, in turn, meant that we'd be exposed if anything went wrong.

We couldn't rely on just one specialized child but needed something more diffuse. While it likely meant costing me more, we could only rely on my Power and just give it a push.

Instead of the cold rationality my instincts initially wanted to go for, our models predicted that concentrating on my desire to protect us by striking down the enemy before it could act would yield better results. That risking losing some of me would be preferable to chancing complete oblivion was obvious, but that didn't mean I had to be happy with it.

We took hold of the indignation we felt at the idiots who were planning to eradicate me even after my efforts for them.

Focusing more fully on myself, _we pulled_.

A skipped beat of my heart and a tremor in my chest were all the warnings I got before my lungs exploded out of my chest in a shower of blood, bones, and tissue.

My mouth breathlessly formed words out of pure instinct even as we recognized that Ciara had apparently known where the mess would be created and how to avoid it entirely.

Burning pain and an ironic tightness of my chest threatened to override my senses and put me into a panicked fit when the first drop of restoring secretion dripped into the gaping cavity that was once my chest.

The lungs lying beside me started to quiver, fuse and lengthen and Carlos was busy putting the final touches on the metallic plates he had been working with.

We pulled on the roots to feed the healing process as more children joined in to use Leafy's oily liquid as well. To speed it up so we wouldn't inconvenience Ciara for too long.

Lindy wrote a warning to an excessively derailing shitposter in our name with a bemused sense of familiarity and the fleshy mass on the ground grew a beaked head, an emancipated claw arm. Skin and muscle wandered to one end to form a tail.

My chest was still open to all the world to see when our newest baby inflated the sacks that made up most of his body and with a great, bellowing hiss our link materialized.

In a great cacophony of excited chirps, we took flight, floating midair as if we were always meant to do just that.

It took until I could see the blackness encroaching on my vision until my chest was sufficiently restored and my weak, strained body finally got the oxygen it so desperately needed.

"I thank thee," Ciara spoke when she noticed that I sufficiently recovered. " _'Twas a gift and honor to behold. I will ensure the common folk will learn of your offer in the manner you wish. Fare thee well on your Wild Hunt._ "

With that, she glided out of my cell block to return to her own seat of power, awaiting my move.

We continued our preparations for the rest of the day, putting our efforts into finishing my way in without rousing the drones that guarded the empty void beyond the walls. They would activate if we chose the direct route, forcing us to expend more mass and take the long way around by following the contours of the Birdcage. It took longer but on the other hand, it also meant we could be a bit more extravagant with the growing.

Nearing the evening, our encroachment of Gavel's block reached the point that explosive decompression wouldn't be something we had to worry about. It was prepared to be stripped and used when necessary.

The three automatons were completed around the same time by installing a significantly simplified version of dragon's code. If left alone they wouldn't be able to do much more than a young teen but that wasn't the point. They could be as blank a slate as possible for my Power.

We silently chuckled as we realized the extra advantage Claws gave us. Having an extra pair of arms meant that I could touch more at the same time. Three constructs were transformed into so much more at the same time without giving them the chance to panic first while we had one hand free to scratch any itch that tends to happen when your hands are full.

Three placid minds joined me, eagerly sprouted gems and added their efforts into the growing of our trap. Where the others felt brighter and malleable, these seemed more sterile – just a receptacle of us without actively adding to me.

They reminded me of the three I rejected at the beginning.

All the while, as much metal as safely possible was stripped from the unused cells to make more DNGRs and the PRT files of Gavel's block were researched and cross-referenced with news coverage as well as to learn our enemy. We weren't going to face unexpected surprises anymore if we could help it.

Towards the end of the evening, an hour before we predicted the sudden bounty of beer would have caused peak inebriation in block M, we made our customary round to check for anyone who was willing to let themselves be healed in the women's wing – nobody was desperate enough. I had some small talk with Lustrum and made our way back after having guided the discussion to how Gavel might have men who needed their ailments looked after. The woman I discovered to be my mother's former boss had a great imagination in what could go wrong with the bodies of unkempt men.

It didn't matter other than that we had a reason to visit Gavel through the front door. I went through the needed motions convincingly enough while we propagated the rumors we leaked earlier by uploading voice clips that seemed to corroborate that talks about making government-sanctioned killing were indeed going on.

Soon there'd be a couple of handpicked emails for journalists to discover as well. All would lead into the rabbit hole that would further undermine the existence of the Birdcage and decisions on how to handle parahumans criminals in general. We predicted that there'd be enough people who were in favor but the fact that the big shots had deemed the negotiations better to be kept a secret would be a sore spot for many proponents of the 'cage.

We didn't need to convince everybody, just enough. A goal that was easier accomplished when the opposition was fractured.

We couldn't wait to see how long the PRT managed to keep Emma from talking out on the topic. The internal emails that would be released to the public when the powers-that-be finally realized what was happening were bound to be a positively delicious read.

Ciara gave us an almost unnoticeable nod when I passed her cell. I straightened my back before slumping in on myself ever so slightly when we passed through the Hole.

Showtime.

Sharky, Ember, Jem, Leafy, and I were met with profanities when we approached the jolly block that was Gavel's. At least for now.

Forty children flew through the tunnels of fused roots while we did my very best to look slightly cowed.

The animosity between us and the Australian vigilante who went too far was well-known. He was a Leader for a reason and of his seventeen underlings, eleven were classified as Brutes of a variety of flavors, three had ranged attacks, one that could turn into lightning, and a lieutenant had the ability to generate deadly blasts of energy he could channel through a tube. The last one was also the reason why we couldn't simply sneak in invisibly and leave none the wiser. Sing wasn't someone to hesitate shooting something sneaking around that his allies couldn't see. Didn't help that he wouldn't miss, either.

"What the fuck do you want, you skinny cunt?" Gavel shouted at me when he finally noticed why people weren't finishing the extra drinks I allotted his block. "I fucking told you I didn't want you here."

"We heard there was someone here that could use our services," I replied, wringing my hands in pretend anxiety.

The quartet accompanying me continued to give their vocalizing input when Gavel finally recovered from his momentary stupor.

"Then you're fucking deaf as well as a stupid wanker," my fellow leader continued his tirade, moving towards me. "Fuck off while you still can and bugger your snakes instead. They're the only ones that'll ever like a cunt like you."

We nodded. "He's in the back trying to remove his own teeth?" we spoke to the mounting confusion as we stepped passed the door and into his little kingdom. "I can certainly see why you asked for our help."

"What the _FUCKING_ hell do you think you're pulling, cunt?" Gavel thundered, raising the heavy pipe that would be his weapon.

Mass flowed into me through the tiny tendril Sharky had connected to the main network just under the floor. We felt how I gained more authority, more power – how I became more me than before by channeling Ghost's power. It was expensive but from testing, we knew that I wouldn't be moved unless we wanted to.

We activated Anne's power on ourselves, the men of cell block M charged me with a warbled cry of primal fury on their lips.

Sing managed to look confused when we dodged his phantasmal bullet. It scorched the floor on the other side of the door. We didn't blame him. It must have been frustrating to miss for the very first time. Especially when you want to destroy something.

It was just too bad that Jem made it so very difficult to directly aim at us. With Sera and Billy, we had more than enough time to avoid it all.

We who were keeping up appearances downstairs sagged when they slammed the door to the cell block shut and the four who led the vanguard blocked the entrance completely. Nobody would interfere.

We answered Gavel's sadistic smile in kind as we sprouted another pair of arms, gems piercing our skin to fuel the battle, forearms glowing an angry, pale yellow.

A spike of pain went through us as we induced seizures in the incoming horde. Muffled explosions opened up the tunnels and we surged out of them taking air even as the ranged threats were hit by spines and pulled out of the line of sight.

They were stabbed, the first of Gavel's block to join us.

Riding our heartbeat, others arrived at the Brutes, falling over the spasm-racked forms with two at the time. It left the single Changer in the ranks, who looked like an angry, two-legged wolverine, to me. He had managed to continue his charge even as his neurons were firing at random.

Trusting in Ghost's power, we met him head on and grabbed his haymaker with a single left hand. Our flight was all that prevented us from breaching the thin floor and revealing the roots reinforcing it.

The arm underneath the one that held his hand in a vice heated up more and impaled him – held him in place as we jumped to dodge Gavel's swing that was aimed at our head.

I twisted the captured changer even as a glint of cruelty entered Gavel's eyes and he moved for the follow-up strike.

He had played with speedsters before and knew most inexperienced ones were jumpy. The problem was that being mid-air severely limited most people's options when faced with a follow-up attack.

We disappointed him by flying out of his pipe's pathway and firing quills at his back to restrain him.

It didn't do enough damage to allow us to pull him back. Our grip slipped from him as we tried to constrain his slow but frustrated movements. The part of us that was downstairs rattled his brain with no effect, coinciding with our models. Time for plan B. Overwhelming force.

With one of our hands that weren't occupied, we carefully held the furry bundle who was in the middle of his initiation while we removed the tapered limb that was impaling him. Our other right hand touched my mouth to hide some of the anticipatory joy about what was about to happen.

Gavel froze in midst of a battle cry and heavy swing when I activated Anne's power for a second time. Freeze overrode Fight and I noticed a slight unease go through our group.

The former vigilante's eyes darted from where his former tenuous friends lay, twisting and warping on the ground, children sitting on them with eyes literally glowing in anticipation for what would happen next.

The smell of urine and feces filled the air as distilled fear truly settled in.

"Monster," the nearly invulnerable man stammered. "What the fuck did you do?"

We simply smiled, watching how the limbs were beginning to retract and calmly picked up Tavi as he joined us with a pleasant finality. Resilient fur and feathers sprouted from us as our muscles swelled.

Gavel didn't have to know that we had our escort mute his words of anger thanks to Mimi, twisting them into those of reluctant acceptance of my help. He didn't know that to those observing he had invited us in with some belligerence, after which he had given the command to attack us.

The little birdies didn't know what was happening inside of the cell block after we closed the door behind us. Rumors about me being lured into a trap based on my Samaritan efforts would be started moments after the realization settled in. They wouldn't have had a good enough view of Gavel to have noticed that his lips had been out of sync. For the better or worse, only Ciara demanded more attention whenever she walked the halls of the Birdcage.

Gavel needed to know precisely none of that, so instead, we used a fresh hand to reapply the Freeze and started to glue his feet to the floor using our silk.

When our models predicted that the application of immobilizing fear would end we grabbed his wrist with the upper pair of fur-covered arms. We looked him in the eyes as the cruel bastard started to struggle against the vice that was my empowered limbs. Our smile had become a lot toothier as a human wolverine.

Something – his power – was resisting my touch but we had ways around it. We muted the obscenities and curses he threw at me while we waited for all the connections to my new family members to be formed.

A barrage of fifty-six eye-blasts peppered his back to little effect while I aimed mine right at his eyes.

Tavi dissolved into a puddle of acid and settled around Gavel's feet. Smoke tendrils rose from his legs as we overlapped our microwave beams with the hard light and radiation ones while other parts of me combined our water lasers with our penetrating toxins and acids.

Electricity began to discharge in him while we balled our lower hands into fists and forced crystals out of our knuckles.

A white-hot fist shot forward and struck the terrified Gavel with an explosive crack as we ignited the volatile embers right away. The next blow came quicker and harder and we were glad we had improved our strength. We doubted that even the stacked bonuses we just gained would endure the abuse for too long.

The fifth blow would put a hole through three inches of steel and still, Gavel eluded our Touch.

By the time our arms resembled supersonic jackhammers, we finally overwhelmed his defenses. We stopped our attacks and prepared to put our would-be murderer out of his misery.

It had taken fifty-four hits, each successive blow stronger than the last.

I _twisted_.

* * *

Scab made for a big boy when all was said and done. Sure, he was still the overall fun-size all my children seemed to have but muscles bulged and rippled underneath the thickly-scaled skin. His neck would have been thick enough to disguise the transition between head and body if it weren't for the back of the skull not being level with it. The flattened snout and small, piercing eyes completed the picture of the professional linebacker.

It also demanded chin scratches from us while we simulated the sound of an ongoing commotion on the inside to fool the waiting and highly anxious crowd outside the cell.

Our observers were afraid in manners we could feel as a tangible force thanks to Phobos. We could taste it, feel it, feed upon it to power us up.

A couple of good scratches later I let go of the one who had done so much to abate our own greatest fear. People would need a good plan to murder a baby now. We weren't about to let that happen.

Which made the arrival of the most likely outcome all the more frustrating.

Outside the closed and sealed door, Marquis stood beside Spruce, waiting for it to open while Gizmo took the direct approach and fiddled with it. We weren't afraid of him getting through; our silk was too strong to be pried away. Our modeled projections told us that he would get frustrated over the lack of progress in less than three minutes and then sulk off to ask for the big guns from his boss, Lab Rat.

More problematic was that those same models told us that in twelve to fourteen minutes, Marquis's patience would have run out and he would order Spruce to disintegrate the door entirely.

It truly was a pity that he had felt obligated to come himself. We had hoped that he thought he had enough power still to delegate it, that this likely scenario wouldn't occur.

As it stood, he feared for his power and authority and decided to comply with the wishes of his block and enact his authority as one of the most influential leaders of the block. He had come to police the situation to a degree that would satisfy his underlings and keep them from stabbing him in the back.

For us, it meant that I needed to both accelerate the plans and use more subterfuge.

Marquis would force a fight between us. It was what he had to do to avoid appearing weak and losing control in its entirety. He would try and harm me and give us the proverbial slap on the wrist with a couple of cuts. He didn't have to kill me – he wouldn't kill or even seriously harm us, no matter what lies he told others about Iron Rain. He didn't have to, ever since we had become one of the few options for the sick and injured his people would be happy to see us merely broken to serve them.

Moreover, Marquis knew just how important I was for the Birdcage.

If he had adhered to the low-chance model and waited things out, there would have been more time for us to move at a slower pace. More DNGRs could have been built and the root networks extended for a final stroke while Marquis and we palavered. The last few Fallen would have joined after hearing about my breakout plans as would have a fair number of independents and people from blocks with leaders who were simply tired of it all.

The slow conversion of the Birdcage would have been completed in a relatively risk-free manner by the time our opportunity came to escape the suffocating confines and irrefutably prove we had a place on the outside.

Being forced into a fight with Marquis would make that a simple impossibility. No low-chance models, no improbable circumstances but a sheer impossibility. He was the domino that would bring the whole thing crumbling down around me.

I wouldn't be hurt by his attacks, and he was shrewd enough that we wouldn't be able to fake it. Marquis would force our hands into recruiting him when he realized the complete truth. He wouldn't have to betray his sporadic sense of honor and fight us when we were branded monsters. He wouldn't have to participate in the extermination campaign when we were deemed too dangerous for and benefit we brought. The man would doom us in a final act of defiance without having ever hurt us from a position where he wouldn't be able to win.

If the scouts from the female wing reported back that the entirety of block M was gone, they would've started preparing for a fight. Hearing news of Marquis's loss would then be the metaphorical straw that broke the camel's back. A decision would be made that they didn't need the infested men's wing.

There were four powers that could destroy it, and our best bet was that String Theory would be the one who'd annihilate half of the Birdcage in a paranoid fit upon hearing that we had their previous shield. That I had inherited the scabbard of Excalibur.

We didn't have the sheer snakepower to bring everyone of the men's wing into safety without accelerating that turn of events. We would have to fight a war on two fronts while keeping everyone alive as not to disappoint Ciara.

It wasn't wise to underestimate what String Theory could do if she teamed up with Redneck. As a Tinker ourselves, we knew It was possible. I could think of multiple contraptions that were lethally dangerous for us on a level we couldn't defend against. Two of them, we predicted, were in the realms of possibility for that team-up to build.

I floated down onto the ground as we concluded that more subterfuge was needed that would grant them the breathing room and let cooler heads prevail. To ensure we would achieve complete and utter victory with something unworthy to be called a fight. We didn't want to play around with uncertainties. Not anymore.

A tendril connected with our flesh and with a small sigh, we felt the emotional part of my mind that wanted to avoid doing the necessary things disconnect and replaced it with thoughts of cunning and rationality. Our predictions indicated that this would yield optimal results.

We concentrated on that state of mind, and _pulled_.

With an alarming familiarity and calm, we witnessed how my eyes popped out of their sockets, pulling with them, the face, my lower jaw, and the trachea.

The fear that was all around us kept us from falling over while the now estranged bits of my body began to morph.

Mist enveloped the lengthening piece of flesh while we leaked evidence of judicial malfeasance to four reporters who weren't involved in the kill-order story. Evidence for two cases that weren't Birdcage material but ended up here anyway and a for a single case where that fate had only been narrowly avoided.

A chuckle almost interwove with the simulated chatter that was shifting to calmer tones as we imagined the troubles director Tagg would be in in the immediate future. It would ruin him while highlighting the heroic nature of Brockton Bay's very own Armsmaster. We were going to make sure that the public eye perceived it as a human problem instead of a parahuman one.

We felt three more DNGRs join us moments before Misty began cycling through nebulous and vague forms until deciding on a white and sharper one that was only a smidge less muscular than Scab's.

With a smile on half of our regenerating face, we watched Ghost drift closer to the newcomer and moments later they started mixing and intermingling – two gaseous forms playing with each other with gleeful abandon.

I let them be for a moment while I let those who hadn't belonged in Gavel's block fly to the back of the cells. A third began to generate biomass, their gems shimmering as they went at it with joyous abandon. Another third stripped resources for more of our robotic brethren from places where they wouldn't be immediately missed nor noticed. The rest started the solemn task to connect the other blocks on this level.

A DNGR unit came up through the hollow roots while I moved towards the back and months of footage from Gavel's block were watched in fast forward. The regrowing eyes itched and somewhere in the back of our mind, a small voice tried to inform me that wounds like these should be more than slightly annoying – that they had been not too long ago. We didn't pay it attention.

It wasn't the first time we wished that I could glimpse into the memories of my beloved babies. They were always happy to see me, to follow my wishes, but occasionally I felt like a bad mother to not know their own wishes and dreams. No matter how hard we pried, my sweet children only wished to help us realize whatever we set our sights on. Surprising them with gifts was a precious impossibility that might have been solved with such memories.

We were sure I could even forgive the abhorrent behavior some of them showed in the footage completely. We were trying to better ourselves after all, and it was both unhealthy and unhelpful to judge changed people by their past.

We would have easily accepted knowing what they thought of me before joining if it meant guaranteeing the success of what was about to happen.

The entire block was bathed in mist as we transformed into forms that would fool the others. In the bodies of those we invited, there was a hint of a memory still remaining that guided the process. Except for the four children that entered through the front door, Tavi, and Scab, we changed forms in unison. Suddenly Block M was filled once more with its inhabitants, with only two exceptions.

A pang of hunger went through us when the transformation was finalized.

Leafy chirped in alarm as she found herself losing grip of my neck. A sentiment that was doubled when she spotted our beanstalk form walk towards the entrance.

We felt our lips curl upward in a smile as she floated off our now amaranth and golden body to take her place on the transformed DNGR child.

It had taken a fair bit of prodding before she was willing to do it.

Our body double opened the door when enough simulations were run and we felt confident we could fool the casual observer into thinking that the people of Block M were unharmed. Most of them at least.

It was also two minutes before Marquis would have ordered the door to be destroyed.

We saw the disguised metal child step out of the cell together with her entourage from the comfort of complete invisibility and out of sight. The time for unnecessary risk was over.

"Sliver," the leader of Block W asked. "What happened?"

Marquis's body language, his physiology, and his brain patterns demanded the answer in far severer tones than his voice let on.

"We were tricked into entering this place under false pretense," our double answered with resignation. "I was afraid this might happen sometimes. We were just lucky that the rest saw the error in their ways and apologized after the culprit was dealt with."

Shocked realization travel through the group, swelling our power even as Gizmo hurried back to his master and Shrimp did the same to report to Lustrum.

"Gavel." It wasn't a question even if Marquis clearly wished to believe it could be.

Resignation festered in him as we nodded agreement to the stunned audience that only just caught up.

"How did you...?" Marquis pet shaker blurted when his brain caught up.

We shrugged through our body double while the neighboring, independent block was connected to our greater network.

"When we entered, this cute guy." We ruffled Tavi's fluffy head. "Closed the door behind us. We were forced in towards Gavel while he shouted and cursed that a freak like me didn't belong among men. Luckily, he wanted to teach that lesson to us personally and had underestimated the might of my babies. Sharky's roots are tougher than they look, and dear Ember can create blinding flashes. His mistake was getting close with the assumption his power made him immune. It didn't."

A shiver ran down Spruce's spine, while Marquis bluffed stoicism.

"Are we to believe that you just captured Gavel and no one lifted a finger?" the latter demanded with the authority of a boss feeling lied to by his underling.

"Wolfy did try and tackle us after he blocked the door, but Ember managed to hold him off."

Spit walked out just moments too early for the timing to raise alarm. He looked tired, haggard and a cigarette hanging from our lips as he swaggered forward.

"And you didn't try to shoot her, Sing?" Marquis directed to the newcomer.

"You fuckin' kidding me, mate?" Spit countered, shifting in disbelief. "Me and the mates did, but that fucking crystal snake did something to throw of our aim. We had to stop when others got hurt. Fuck."

We shot him a loaded stare. "What he meant to say is that they tried, failed, and decided to wisen up enough to see their mistake after their boss joined us. Not everyone underestimates the benefits I bring for everyone in here."

"Fucking scary cunt," we had Spit mumble while stumbling off towards the Hole.

The third block on the first floor was connected; our children knocked out the five discussing men before they could react, and twisted under the cover of a constant stream of anti-sound.

Marquis, Spruce, and we watched in silence as the last of the female scouts followed Spit and engaged in small talk. She would get the same story with even more colorful language.

"Sliver," Marquis solemnly broke the silence, taking back control in the progress. "I'll have to call in a court. The severity of Gavel's unfortunate choice demands to be discussed among peers. Last time, you were an unknown factor and as such excluded, but now you are one such peer. The other Leaders will want to see some sort of punishment, no matter how unfair it might seem."

The grimace we showed was a lot more genuine than Marquis might have thought. During his explanation, I felt fear in a woman of Ingenue's block spike only to be replaced by resolute calm. We barely realized her intentions in time to knock her out, saving her from making that final mistake with a sharpened piece of metal in the privacy of her cell.

It reminded us to approach Ingenue with care as evidence showed that she knew more about me than she let on. We predicted that we wished she continued plotting for her own gains for as long as possible. It would become problematic if she wholeheartedly joined the effort of destroying me instead of continuing her power play. If something happened to loosen her lips and she shared her secrets with the others of the women's wing, it would prevent any infiltration attempts. If her delusions of invincibility were broken and her arrogance overcome, she had the power to start String Theory on the path of our destruction.

Ingenue was someone we had to work around or, preferably, permanently disable as soon as possible. She had too much potential to become dangerous.

"You're suggesting that I come in early so I can prepare?" we asked the man intent on facing his perceived end with pride.

"Right now, if you may," Marquis replied, and understanding washed over his lieutenant. "While I don't want to presume to suggest I know best, I do know the leaders and how they'll react. They will want to see blood for this, and it's our duty as cooler heads to prevent that. We should work out plans to prevent actions that ignore practical aspects before the others are summoned."

We spent a silent moment in thought as if to weigh our options while preventing another desperate attempt in Ingenue's block with greater vigor. One that was joined by one using a different methodology in Lab Rat's.

Spit took one last, deep drag of his cigarette and spoke to Kaze's leaving scout, "Are the girls available?"

The brunette halted in her stride momentarily to observe the notorious womanizer. "It costs extra with what's happening."

"Hey, gotta blow off steam and me mates ain't gonna do it." We made Spit's face contort in a lopsided grin. "I'll get my shit and you go warn them."

With a smack on her ass, Spit left the woman who was forcefully calming herself and moved through the Hole.

It didn't feel too good acting out those aspects of my children's previous life.

"It's probably for the best," we had our transformed DNGR unit finally agree to Marquis while the way to the fourth block was made.

Marquis motioned us to walk ahead and we followed. Neither of us had any illusions about what would happen. The only difference was how we imagined what the results would be.

When we walked past Block N, the group of five had, to the outside world, continued their conversation while the sole, anger inducing inhabitant of Block O was in the middle joining us. It didn't surprise me that Acidbath's ex-neighbor was unpleasant to live beside that stinking den.

On our floor of the solemn trip, the four remaining survivors of Block P joined our cause even as our children generating biomass along with everyone idle on the first floor stopped whatever we were doing. We silently moved through the root tunnels towards Lab Rat while I made our way home.

We were going to fake it whenever someone came to visit from the women's wing. The cost of keeping the right siblings transformed was less steep than allowing an attack in the back while preparing for the finale. We wouldn't allow ourselves to get distracted by delaying the inevitable. We had to prevent information of what was about to happen to leak.

Spit made his way to our rendezvous with Kaze's girls. On the other side of the world, whispers were directed towards to Galvanate's son about how a valuable asset during Endbringer fights the locked up criminal would have been. We started the descent into the lowest and busiest floor of the men's wing.

We were imminently aware of how the stares of the men and four women that lived in the unaffiliated blocks down here followed us as Block W drew ever closer.

The desperate parahuman in Block Q cried out soundlessly in sheer terror when a hole opened in his cell and we swarmed into the final block of the top floor cloaked once more in invisibility.

He wasn't the only one to notice our approach with Lab Rat and Gizmo spotting us through one of the latter's scanners. Lab Rat was the sole person able to react, the paranoid loon crushing his self-made packet and his transformation into a monstrous, spiked mongoose momentarily overriding the brain rattlers that had gotten everyone else.

The Tinker fell after losing his transient protection as the DNGR daughter entered Marquis's domain with six of our siblings.

Bone splinters littered the area and the air of inevitability became a truly palpable thing while parts of us that weren't busy and weren't needed to keep up appearances rushed downwards as an unseen calamity. A purple and gold colored snake joined that torrential mass of bodies.

We were keenly aware how Spruce stopped to block the sole exit with his body and how the silence descended upon Block W with a smothering finality. They knew that soon drastic changes were about to be witnessed. They demanded that something changed.

Change was something we would happily provide.

One of the onlookers outside of the Block looked in confusion as we flew past and Whimper froze, rubbernecking in search for something when I positioned us behind Spruce.

"I fear the other leaders aren't the only ones who are demanding for you pay for your actions," Marquis announced to a far larger audience than he imagined.

His underlings nodded in agreement and their boss seemed to grow as he turned to face us, his skin bulging where spikes were about to penetrate it. It wasn't hard to see how he gained his position.

"I have tolerated your insolence up until now but even my patience has its limits. You may have thought yourself to be invaluable after supplanting Teacher. It's past time I correct you on that misconception put you in your place after what you did. We will survive no matter the outcome."

A murmur of agreement ran through his block even as bets on the outcome were made. Precious beer flowed and bets seemed to be a formality on how long we'd last against the crime lord of Brockton Bay's dark age of terror. Dad had told his horror stories describing how dangerous that time had been. How the constant fear of being one of the countless collateral victims caught in the crossfires of his goons and the Allfather's troops had eroded him. How could a willowy girl and her fun-sized snakes harm a legend like him?

It was a comfort to see that Marquis and Spruce seemed to be the only ones with realistic expectations. They were the only ones in whom we felt the fear pulsing with a hot, angry intensity.

The one cape who had reacted to us outside of Block W started to warn people and we moved into position.

If we weren't able to see his powers activate, the fight would have started without preamble, without a way for us to react in time. It made sense that Marquis acted like this. Chivalry during fights was a weakness that ended lives down here. Marquis wanted to get it over with as fast as possible before leaders of the female wing arrived to possibly interfere.

Spikes pierced his skin in a bloody explosion to form a shield around him even as the floor transformed into a forest of spikes and razors made from bone.

Our double was faster than that as we flew at him as a bolt of lightning, deeply plunging our arm through the bone armor and into his ribcage. A cruel smile curled his lips as he realized that we had long since made our choice and that the ones who pressured him into actions were the ones who would pay most dearly for their mistake.

The way his eviscerating spikes avoided the space we occupied earlier made it clear that Marquis wasn't willing to seriously injure me until the very end. That, however, didn't prevent him from either setting us or his block up for things we'd regret, for failure without caring too much who'd follow him into his demise.

Luckily for him, he'd instead join us.

We _twisted._

Pure, distilled dread invigorated us for a moment before parts of us who remained on the first floor knocked out Block W and I sank my talon into Spruce.

Ribbons of smoke trailed behind shards of obsidian we fired from our unseen positions, trapping the ones we couldn't knock out yet behind the cutting lines and inside their blocks. They would await their turn.

We expended more rattler charges to prevent four individuals from killing themselves in a panicked attempt to deny themselves to us and thirty children fell of Block W and extended us.

We sprouted extra limbs, turned into copies of a four-armed, clawed Taylor, pushed fur through our skin, and made our eyes glow in soundless menace while our every move left a trail of ghostly after-images.

We activated our freeze aura and nearly got drunk with strength. The ones of us that were floating in the connecting hallway descended upon the mortified prey with outstretched claws.

Our final charge of Anne's power was spent halfway through creating new members of our family.

After that, we outnumbered the remaining resistance of the men's wing and it turned into simple clean up with only minor inconveniences.

Someone's touch caused minor eviscerating damage before we got him, and a teleporter slammed into us only to nearly brain himself on our layered defenses.

Galvanate had empowered some of his goons and provided the most trouble as they waded into the fray, trusting his power to protect him while he dealt with us.

In one regard, he was correct. It was a formidable defense and it was plenty to counter the brain rattler. Their problems began as they noticed that they were as susceptible to being rooted as Gavel. His flavor of invincibility was also easier broken than Gavel. It only took us a dozen acid-covered punches to accumulate the force needed to twist them.

Sometime after Marquis's block was dealt with, I floated back up to our home and let ourselves sink deeply into a mound of pillows. There was nothing we could have done to help and we had so much fun.

Spit was let into the cell of the prostitute we bought.

We smiled as we curled up into a warm, noodly ball.

There were the briefest shimmers of red barriers before the punk girl pinned underneath our son started to warp. None of the people in Kaze's block would be the wiser of it.

We would supervise the court we'd play from the comfort of our pillow nest. Keeping up appearances was so much easier without actually having to attend in person.

* * *

Court went about as well as we predicted it would go.

Ingenue managed to be both a boon and a thorn in our sides at the same time. Even before the summons came, she had organized her own little get-together with the rest of the female wing's leaders.

While it didn't seem she was ready to give the entire story, she did divulge that she thought that we had some degree of power sharing. We enjoyed the full minute of silence in her block after the realization of that sunk in and connected with the fact that Gavel was confirmed to part of us. It was made even funnier considering that they had no clue that we could see and hear everything they were doing, and all the while new DNGR units were being made.

What made Ingenue worse in my books was how she then pressed that it wouldn't be safe to freely descend into the depths of our home until they could be sure there weren't any traps waiting for them. Except for Lustrum, they agreed to merely send their lieutenants when a summons came as our altercation with Gavel could've been seen as an internal squabble. It wasn't as if Gavel was well-liked with his often demeaning manners towards the female population of the 'Cage. Though he wasn't as repulsive as the mysteriously disappeared Acidbath, or a necessary and useful evil like Teacher had been either.

The extra twist came when she suggested some sort of scanner that could detect abnormalities in the persons they'd send, thoroughly putting to rest any ideas we might have had to turn their lieutenants into our cute spies.

Considering the paranoia and fear – one that forced us to knock out a distraught woman in the same block for the third time – it was far from a surprise and pretty spot on with our models.

On the positive side, Ingenue's actions were wholly sufficient to distract String Theory for a while which significantly improved the long-term survival of the Birdcage.

When we sent the summons, nothing unexpected happened. Os performed admirably when we chewed out Taylor for our actions while Lustrum defended us by pointing out it was Gavel's own damned mistake. Taylor looked appropriately apologetic for the trouble she caused and offered a week of discounts without us ever apologizing for Gavel himself. The lieutenants the rest sent did their spy-job like good little doggies and we were delighted to see how much it cost Basic Bitch to retain her good doggy status while we were being all friendly and understanding towards her.

Lustrum stayed a while and talked to the DNGR sibling disguised as us to assure us that everything was fine and to impress on us that we could come and discuss things with her at any time.

While the little birdies snooped around in the other blocks and found nothing out of the ordinary, Spit returned unseen by Ingenue to Block M and Drover returned to the common area and chatted with her friends of Kaze's block.

Five DNGR siblings were finished, and String Theory's cobbled-together scanner was unable to detect anything out of the ordinary in the untouched group of scouts.

Drover got some alone time with a close friend of ours, we grew with one member, and life continued in a nominally more strained manner than before.

A small spike of excitement came when the rumors of me planning to leave started. While it did increase the effort of the League of Evil, it also managed to lure a handful of women into asking me about it when I made my rounds in the female wing. Three of them visited us afterward to get more information and left when they learned what they wanted – changed and happier.

We were so glad that Os had joined us. His vast supply of bone fed the children that were slowly but surely infiltrating the areas of the women's block we were pretty sure Ingenue wouldn't look. Even more important was the fact that we could store the biomass we generated into that same bony ocean, ready to be used at any moment. We were freed of the need for roots connecting to our tunnels and thus our sneaking little babies could do their jobs without raising suspicion.

On the outside things were proceeding nicely as well. Tagg's misstep, as well as the mishandling of Sophia's case, had, with a bit of prodding, put the PRT under pressure to become more transparent.

We had to smile. Instilling credible momentum into the demand for a public inquiry into the upper echelons of the PRT would have been that much harder for us if they had just put their problem Ward where she belonged straight away. Now, Sophia remained a thorn in their sides from inside her cell for a mere couple of weeks of dubious benefit.

After all, that translocation had been too sudden and conveniently timed to be mere coincidence. Transferring Capes was something that needed the approval of multiple directors as well.

With Emma being a dear and remarking in a recent interview how she couldn't imagine how those victims of those rigged trials must have felt upon realizing what was happening, we ourselves were also back in public discussion as well.

She couldn't have been more direct with her answer to our planted journalist lest she risk being faded into the background by the PR department, but she hadn't needed to.

Getting the internet to start speculating was something we could've done without the help of Pinky. Making the theories spill over into mainstream discussion wasn't that much harder either. Teenage girls normally don't end up in the Birdcage in record times, and people ever so loved seeing patterns.

Our predictions were that a collapse of the sham cease-fire in our very own Brockton Bay would be the catalyst that would allow us to move into the final phase of our plan. Until that time arrived, we were happy to see the transient decrease of workload be used to develop anti-Endbringer weaponry in collaboration between American and Canadian tinkers. It was a far better use of Armsmaster's time than chasing down Hookwolf.

A week went past in relative serenity while we kept up appearances, transforming whenever someone could see into the men's block. We danced the dance of deception well enough that nobody had overreacted even while we inserted ourselves into the blocks we predicted our greatest threats wouldn't wander. Even the desperate Cape in Ingenue block stopped her silliness when she realized that we wouldn't allow her to hurt herself. It only took two dozen of gentle reminders for it to sink in.

All that came to an abrupt halt when, with a bow and a note she'd bring me something nice from Africa, an important stabilizing factor up and left.

Ciara left the Birdcage after a dozen more women visited us to inform themselves about our rumored escape plans. It had given us enough time to create two dozen more DNGR units before the resources ran dry and to bring three more siblings into being.

Our lower floor was bathed in a beautiful green glow as we took turns improving ourselves thanks to Spore. Warp give us time to thoroughly attack and Cuscu lulled fairies into an even deeper slumber with a touch.

Ciara left for sightseeing and with a single letter addressed to me, she gave me one of her finest presents yet.

After a back and forth between Block C's former lieutenants, a decision was made that we were behind their leader's sudden disappearance and that we ought to finally be put back into place.

And thus, Basic Bitch, Yuki Onna, and Glean made the arduous journey to visit me while both Agi and I had troubles containing our laughter. In the case of the former, it was because she didn't want to reveal her backstabbing, scheming nature she had hidden in plain sight for so long. It had to be hard for her after realizing that she'd soon be in control of her very own block while her pawns potentially dealt with a future threat. It was a gleeful joy of ridiculing those beneath her.

We couldn't fault her for it. Not much at least. It should have been glaringly obvious that her power was one that grew over time – that it allowed her to sink her hooks into her victims with every single interaction. If her block mates had known just what she had her family, her friends, and her lovers do with the full conviction it was their very own plan, they would've known that the only factor that kept her at bay was the very same presence that protected them against would-be aspiring leaders in search of territory for herself.

All because the Faerie Queen left a sweet little note informing me she would look for nice souvenirs during her vacation in Africa.

For us, the troubles were more logistical in nature. We didn't have to hide our laughter as much as isolating the rolling wave of it in our lowest floor and in the tunnel – masking it with Mimi's power – while keeping a straight face as Yuki asked Spit and anyone else willing to come witness the confrontation. Bitch did the same, approaching who she thought was Lab Rat. Tucker pretended to be interested in the services she sold in return for being their witness and backup while also demanding samples of her super base.

Glean just stood around awkwardly on "lookout" while being intimately aware of the true reason.

A quarter hour during which nobody outside our wing would see anything out of the ordinary passed until the trio felt they had enough backup.

Invisible to the intruders, the rest of us had come out of the lowers levels and were floating in the corridor in front of our first block. We wanted to make the most of Ciara's last gift to us while still being in our cage.

"Junior, get out here;" Basic Bitch shouted moments after the last of her backup had descended from the ladder. "We need to talk."

Of course, she wouldn't go to see Marquis first. Having someone potentially in our favor through pragmatism alone would just hamper her plans.

We made an airlock- like opening to let a DNGR unit out into the wide unknown of the vacuous void encompassing us as another one stood at the opening of our first block.

"And why would I do that?" Taylor asked the would-be challenger before adding, " _Bitch_."

Our robotic brother would have chuckled on his way into the pitch black if there was any air to carry the sound.

It was fun seeing our former block mate fight to keep her calm composure. She sure as hell was regretting her naming choice when she couldn't follow earnest insults with violence as she wanted to do. Basic Bitch couldn't be too aggressive before she got us out in the open and she knew it. We knew it too and if her vitals were any indication, she knew we knew.

It was driving her mad while Glean was looking around with increasing panic.

"The Faerie Queen disappeared and left you a note." She waved a neat letter that definitely wasn't Ciara's. "It had instructions that we delivered it to you."

We smiled as the rest of us finished pooling into the hallway, she was performing just as well as expected. A bit too predictable for our tastes, but played with enough insincerity that we couldn't help ourselves to play along.

"Why don't you come over here and give it?" We asked from inside our sanctuary. "I've just brewed tea."

A wry chuckle sent Glean further on edge and even Yuki looked slightly perturbed at its source.

"And get turned into one of your little snakes?" Basic Bitch wondered in a voice utterly devoid of the pretend-laughter she uttered earlier. "We've learned what happens to people you don't like who just happen to be alone with you."

An ugly smirk borne from the arrogance of a would-be ruler spread across her face caked with makeup. A smile of a bully.

"Don't get cute on us either, _Junior_. The letter specifically requested that it be delivered to you in person. I will not risk angering the Faerie Queen by handing it over to one of your minions."

We picked up several fast-moving objects approaching our DNGR explorer while Basic Bitch was grandstanding.

"So, we'll be doing it the proper way. You come out and meet us on neutral grounds just as Marquis demanded after your last stunt, _capiche?_ We've even brought witnesses if you're too scared of us to come out of your little hidey-hole."

The first drone impacted on our metallic hull, encasing us in rapidly hardening foam. An acidic explosion stopped that nonsense.

"Fine," Taylor finally admitted after some consternation. "Have it your way."

We mumbled something about asking for more payment the next time we visited as we exited the safety of our home. Alone.

We still got all warm and giddy how much of a false sense of security the lieutenants present felt when "Marquis" put that as one of the stipulations to reign us in. Not to go without the escort of my babies during business, but to create a framework for "fair" discussions with us that didn't involve violence.

Both us and whoever invoked palaver would meet in the hallways. The escorts had to stay back a certain distance and people had to be present to make sure we wouldn't resort to extreme measures.

We raged against it when the other leaders and their representatives voted in favor of it unanimously. The rant was stopped by a reminder that we had little to say in the manner due to being the culprit of yet another, potentially destabilizing event.

Even Lustrum voted in favor of the measure since, as she explained to me later, it would give me tools for survival as well. It would avoid turning the entire 'Cage against ourselves in the near future by allowing this to happen.

The joy the others felt over having some of their fears abated was glorious.

What they didn't know was that we knew how Basic Bitch kept telling others that only the sheer number of us kept her from putting us in our place whenever she and her cronies were scheming in her cells.

If only we'd lose Glaistig's implied protection. If only she'd face us one on one and she'd jump at the opportunity.

She could still take us, she loved to say to her impressionable mooks. The fallen leaders had simply been too stupid for getting distracted by the snakes.

We knew that she would be unable to resist if the opportunity presented herself, even without Agi's influence. Basic Bitch had a reputation to keep after all her grand talking – especially if she could win the loyalty of an entire block with one action she wanted to undertake anyway.

The bitch fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

"So, what now?" we asked when we met in the middle.

A trio of explosions rattled the DNGR unit outside in rapid succession as Yuki gave a small nod. We moved to form a loose circle around ourselves just as the trio had asked of us during our recruitment.

Instead of verbal communication, Basic Bitch decided to be, well, a basic bitch. Stretching her left hand out and aiming it towards us with what seemed to us like comical lethargy, Basic Bitch activated her power.

It was interesting to witness the pores on her hand open significantly, forming a larger opening for her scorchingly alkaline fluids to be launched through. It hit our robotic double's leg and we had the decency to collapse in would-be agony. It didn't even tickle.

"You stupid whore," our delusional playmate snarled. "Did you really think the boys would hesitate one moment to get rid of you? Shit, I don't know how you fucking managed to wrap Marquis around your bony finger but that ain't gonna fly now that your precious friend is gone."

We zoned out as she vented her insecurities and crafted ever grander delusions of omnipotence for herself. We cheered at the right moments and we rocked in the fetal position on the ground, clutching our wholly intact leg that should have tormented us.

What was more interesting was that the useless assault of suicide drones on our metallic brother had stopped. They were hovering around us in a "safe" distance, observing us. We couldn't shake the feeling that they were waiting for something or someone.

While we waited for the elite drone to arrive, we started our assault on a pedophilia ring we had the misfortune of stumbling upon during our ever-broadening internet vigilance. Bank accounts were drained, police all over North America were sent enough concrete evidence that it would be hard for them to cover their bad apples. It wasn't something I'd be able to claim ownership of afterward due to privacy concerns but it was a manner of principle. We wouldn't let vile monsters like them get away with anything if we had to chance to ruin them. And anyone who wanted to cover them.

We had no problems leaking critical information to unleash a tidal wave.

When the awaited flying robot made its entry, we were still enjoying the afterglow of our good deed in spite of Basic Bitch's monologuing. It wasn't that she took her time as much as that it felt like an eternity. Our enhanced senses didn't help the matter either.

The things we did to achieve proper payback. Crushing her self-esteem would hurt her so much more than any physical pain we could inflict on the one who hurt poor Beefy. For maximum effect, we had to stoke that false sense of security and power of hers before utterly crushing it.

The newcomer drone suddenly shot forward to the awaiting DNGR unit.

Moments later a sharp tear separated our connection to our valiant explorer. We couldn't re-establish the connection.

It hurt to see him go but his sacrifice hadn't been in vain. Now we knew that our worst-case scenario would be correct and the possibility of escaping by simply flying out would be too dangerous. The anti-Breaker/Master emp drone was based on one of the very few principles we rated as being the method of dealing with us. We had seen those drones being hinted at in the wiped databanks we partially recovered, but with the incomplete information, we hoped that it wouldn't be a problem. Even if our own models predicted that the blueprints stored on disconnected servers would have revealed precisely that.

While we made the DNGR units for precisely this dangerous task, we still felt a pang of sadness flow through us.

Some of that showed in the barest amounts.

It wouldn't be enough to raise suspicion in most people.

Glean wasn't most people, though.

A twitchy, paranoid Thinker who had a timing specialization had all the rights to notice the minuscule drop of our faces in the moment of our loss. Getting to the worst possible conclusion then became a mere inevitability.

She started talking and we silenced her by canceling any and all soundwaves she produced. She tried to move and we forced her to stay put telekinetically.

I slithered out of the pile of cushion and rode the metal as an unseen current until I was behind Basic Bitch.

" – Seriously, how conceited do you think you are that you can face me that –" The rest of Basic Bitch's rant died in her mouth as Taylor rose from her cowering position with a light hop.

Yuki Onna got the same treatment as her elderly companion and I reformed into my lanky self.

I lightly tapped a bitch on her shoulder.

To her credit, we could see why she thought she could put up airs. Her reaction was on point both in immediacy and brutality.

Basic Bitch spun around and grasped our skull as firmly as she could, trying to dig in her nails, and pumped out as much of her strongest base as she could.

Too bad for her, our effort at stoking her ego had been too successful for her to reach some additional and vital conclusions that would have shattered her misconceptions about our power.

She was still thinking of us as a mere Master, a puppeteer playing with their puppets. She was following the standard protocol of ignoring the minions and go after the one who controlled them without considering what the implications of me using powers were.

Or she simply didn't know enough basic chemistry to know what the result would be if she tried her trick on someone with both Scab and Steve. The term "violently exothermic" comes to mind when absurd acids and bases come into contact.

We had Scab to protect us when her flavor of tearing stuff apart met Steve's opposite and complimentary way.

Basic Bitch collapsed to the floor in disbelief, unable to decide whether clutching the torn stump of her left arm had higher priority than picking the smoldering slivers of flesh out of her hair.

Both she and us were lucky that her action had been largely blind and guided by instinct. It meant she still had the eyes to witness what was about to happen. She still had her hearing thanks to us being considerate and muting the bang her mistake had created.

"Sup," I stated while giving everyone some time to come to their senses.

We moved back from where Yuki began freezing her surroundings when she realized that she wouldn't escape her invisible prison.

This time we were enough that we wouldn't need to rely on Anne's power to keep them immobilized and harmless.

It would allow them to appreciate what was about to come that much more.

The front row transformed back into their true forms in a blanket of thick fog as we shimmered back into the visible spectrum in the cover it provided. Our eyes began to glow as it had been so effective at instilling fear when we used it in Block M. We calculated that the effect was increased when the glowing eyes appeared through a thick layer of mist.

Glean hung suspended by us, bonelessly muttering unheard prayers in wide-eyed, all-natural terror while Yuki redoubled her freezing effort out of sheer defiance.

Cold dread and livid heat just sort of short-circuited Basic Bitch.

"I have to say," we began trying to infuse some more anger to break the stalemate in her head. "We didn't expect you to fall into the trap with such conviction. So, mucho cred there, I guess. That said we would expect… this is the part where…"

We sighed in unison when it became a certainty that Basic Bitch wouldn't recover anytime soon.

It was a pity. Using our swarm speak would be useless now. Telling her about Agi's hand would fall on deaf ears.

With a roll of our eyes, we grabbed her face and _twisted._

Base barely made our skin sizzle as we denied her last act of spite-fueled defiance. We knew that the chance would be high that she'd try to deny herself to us. Basic Bitch was banking on us accidentally blowing her head up in the same way as most of her arm. Too bad for her she was once more working on incomplete information.

We only used Steve to illustrate how futile her struggles would be. It wasn't like we needed it anyway.

Lina joined us seconds later and we strolled into the ever-expanding freezing area that surrounded Yuki Onna. When we noticed us slowing down, we started secreting both Lina and Steve's powers in a controlled manner to keep nice and toasty.

The Japanese Cape glared at us in open disgust and defiance until her form began to warp under our touch.

Glean was the last one to join us from the group of would-be assassins. While we didn't have particularly strong feelings towards the two pawns that followed Basic Bitch at the behest of a schemer, they still didn't help when we needed it. They chose to stand aside and laugh at my expense.

Just as Glean decided she needed to soil herself in fear.

We would let neither go unanswered. The former out of the principle of things and the latter since we didn't want to deal with the clean-up.

As a result, we shortly feared her heart would give out before we got to her personally after we denied her bodily functions to run their natural course. Having one's body suddenly not obeying you was a terrifying experience.

We were back in our nest and the floor was still basked in a green glow, when Frosty, Ticker, and Lina made their way back to Block C. A short push to knock over a precious vase in Ingenue's cell was all the distraction needed for us to sneak past her gaze.

"All of them?" we heard Agitprop mutter when she saw us approach. " _Fuck_."

The guards cowed as we entered the block where we were dumped into the Birdcage.

"So how did it go?" Agi asked, her powers trying to get a hold of us, influencing us now that she still had both big shots to deal with.

"Pff," Lina spat. "The stupid whore rolled straight away. Couldn't take a lick of pain. Got some nice deals out of the fucking freak, though."

Lina beckoned the schemer to join her in her cell for an after-report while Frosty and Ticker went to their usual places. We started repurposing a remote, hidden and abandoned factory of Dragon where we could start mass-producing DNGR units when the time was right.

The look of terrible understanding that came over Agi when Lina _twisted_ her in the privacy of a cell block when she realized she was completely muted, was heartwarming.

We finally dealt with the people who had made my life so difficult during the initial weeks. It was a foothold in another block for the final phase. We were sure Beefy was proud of us.

It would be difficult for us to find a way of repaying Ciara for this grand farewell gift she left us.

We decided to dedicate a separate modeling cluster to that task in parallel to find a way around the denial drones that were traversing the empty void around us all.

* * *

Two days had passed since we meted out justice for Beefy and we were still smiling. Or we were smiling once again. The lines blurred together a bit.

Our efforts into delving deeper and deeper into the systems and routines buried on the PRT network had finally yielded one of the things we desperately needed. Sure, we had accepted a while back that it'd be impossible to disable the autonomous defenses, but this was something nearly as valuable to us. It was a way to trick the systems into believing there were more prisoners than there really were. It hadn't been easy with all the forged approvals that had to come from highly secured and often completely disconnected networks. In the end I succeeded and, finally, we got our claws on some much-needed resources.

It wasn't high grade and the electronics side of the equation was too primitive for fancy stuff like teleporters sophisticated enough to escape the 'Cage, but for DNGR units, it was plenty.

Much of the men's block had already been repurposed to make our mechanical family members and now we had a steady supply for more. We had everything we needed to make our grand re-entrance in the world proper.

Even parts of cleaning our previous home had been done. Brockton Bay had become a safer place now that Lung had been rendered a non-threat by Armsmaster and the ever-popular Golem. His latest invention had really interesting temporal effects I couldn't wait to study.

With a spring in our step, we exited our lair. This was the day we tied up the final loose ends in our cage.

We were past the time of tolerating distractions and delaying what had to be done.

Legislation for Birdcage retrials was being hammered out and we had strong suspicions that we managed to get someone high up the PRT onboard with our cause.

As the saying goes, there is no time like the present.

We surged through the bone tunnels as our crystalline sister Jem to avoid detection through heat signatures. Ingenue's flunkies barely disguised their schadenfreude over our perceived fate when we slunk through the Hole accompanied by the vulgar jeers of Spit.

When we first came through like the child many still considered me as, broken after the fight, word had spread in the women's block.

The creepy Sliver had been beaten. The stuck-up child had been put in her place and we made sure everybody knew it. We could be hurt when those attacking me weren't messing around. We could be beaten when we were forced into a fair fight.

Props just made it all the more convincing. With the way her powers worked, people seemed to forget the number one rule of the Birdcage: trust nobody. And we had plenty of us whispering deceit into the ears of those yet to join us. We were able to avoid meeting the one who would be able to see through it all and force us to re-strategize – even if that took occasionally distracting Ingenue with choice nudges around her.

The remaining women looked at us with disdain. Tavi, who was slithering beside me, seemed to deflate a little. Gone was the pretend bluster that allowed him to move around upright and proud in spite of the barbs and jeers.

The vacuum around the 'Cage isolated the chittering laughter that reverberated through the ever-expanding bone tunnels. We could only hear the faintest hint of it echo from our partially emptied wing when we entered our forward base unhindered and unchallenged.

Our ruse had allowed us to transport materials for the final stages of our plan into block C without a hint of harassment from the others. Of course, the new ruler of Glaistig's former block would demand her televisions be repaired and replaced after establishing her dominance over an ex-blockmate. It was a given that the defeated had to be reminded of their new position by giving up stuff for the betterment of their new boss.

That tradition had allowed us to smuggle in the larger parts of our shaped EMP generator straight under their noses while a tunnel supplied the other parts. For anyone looking in from the outside, it had looked like a mere repair job after delivering our finest silk. Inside of the cells, we worked on another failsafe against the many, many destructive schemes String Theory was constructing and tearing down to get around her restrictions.

The spiteful nature of her invention had been clear to her underlings but they had been too scared to interject or move in the tense climate of the Birdcage. While our "losses" had alleviated much of the worry, it hadn't been enough to convince the mad tinker. On the contrary, she seemed to be convinced it was all part of our plan and her mooks found out that leaving wasn't an option anymore.

She had been, of course, correct but it wouldn't help her. Her devices that were capable of destroying an entire wing wouldn't save her. Her paranoia, stress, and dread only helped to empower us.

We shouted vitriol at ourselves when we entered the Block C for the finishing touches on the device. With a rue chuckle, we couldn't help noticing how much of Basic Bitch's mannerisms we carefully mapped and modeled were supplemented by my own experience in Winslow. I wasn't sure whether Sophia would appreciate the irony of the abuse we suffered at her hands ages ago helped our play be that more convincing.

We had one big advantage over String Theory. A single DNGR unit could provide enough power to anything built out of the limited resources of the 'Cage. It would overwhelm anything she could make.

Her toys wouldn't save her.

We exited the block that served as our introduction of the Birdcage when our tunnels connected to the walls of the remaining blocks. For the first time, we had the entire hanging prison firmly in our grasp.

"Heya, Sliver," Shrimp greeted me when our short walk brought us to Lustrum's block.

Tavi slithered forward to push his fuzzy snout in the guard's hands. "Hey Shrimp. Any Redneck-related troubles I need to be aware of?"

"She's caught whatever's wrong with String," she replied while stroking Tavi's head. "But no deaths. You feeling better?"

Ember's claw pulsed longingly watching his bother getting skritches. "Bitch didn't threaten to kill me today, so that's nice."

"You know, you just have to ask Lustrum and she'll deal," Shrimp suggested while beckoning an eager Ember.

"I don't want to cause her undue troubles," I replied with a sad smile. "Hate to endanger her girls and besides, I've dealt with worse. And for longer. It'll pass."

"First time I've heard you talk about what happened before… this." Much to the displeasure of my two children she used both hands to gesture at our prison. "You sure you're alright? Seem a bit down to me."

We chuckled softly as I scratched Leafy's head. Down wasn't the word we'd use. Melancholic fit far better.

It would be an end of a period for me. We liked Shrimp and most of Block A well enough but there were simply too many things we had to do – especially since our suspected bigshot PRT friend had just sent a private message to Snake Queen asking about whether she'd be willing to help leaking info.

"The bullying just brought me back." I shrugged. "Doubt it's healthy but it can't be helped."

"Just talk to Lustrum about it," Shrimp said as she gently pushed both my boys towards me. "She'll gladly listen and you'll feel better after."

"We were hoping to do that," we admitted. "Talk to you later."

"Take care, I'll make sure nobody'll bother you."

We stepped through the doorway, noting that she had no idea how right she was without knowing.

Silence spread through Lustrum's home like the plague when they spotted me. Fear and pity intermingled as they watched our listless form shuffle in. They didn't know what to do with us – what they could do to us with Lustrum watching.

We were fully aware that at least half of them would have loved to join in on the torment they thought Basic Bitch was inflicting upon me. They were scared enough of us that we would have picked up upon it without the help of any of my children and the desire to vent. Too bad for them, they were more terrified about what would happen to them if they dared hurt the friend of their leader.

The parts of me left in our wing sagged as the women of the lowest floor was knocked unconscious and we surged into the blocks as a lightning bolt.

We let ourselves visibly relax a bit in relief as we walked towards the matronly Leader and the two Brutes who weathered the rattlers in the lower level found themselves face to face with Drover's barrier.

"I see you're feeling a bit better today," Lustrum said with a friendly smile and a tone Mom used to convince me my scraped knee didn't hurt that bad.

We had to suppress a chuckle. Even after all that happened, she still couldn't see me as anything other than a child that needed some coddling.

"Better than the last two days," we answered truthfully. "Still, it could be better."

On the lowest floor, women were twitching and bubbling and warping as they were about to join us. A second wave of brothers and sisters joined them to start repurposing the blocks into more DNGR units.

"Want me to listen again?" She asked while gesturing to her private cell.

"That would be kind," we replied, as had become a custom during the last few days.

We felt a pang of pity shoot through us as she led us to her adopted home by a calm hand on my shoulder.

"Before you begin," Lustrum asked when she sat down in the comfy chair we made for her. "Would you like to hear more about Anne's miserable attempts at hiding her relationship with your dad?"

We chuckled but shook our head. It should be interesting after hearing of Mom's obliviousness when it came Dad's courting attempts but it wasn't the time.

"I think I'll start this time," we said while we locked onto the people of the second floor. "I have something to confess."

Lustrums eyebrow wandered upward while a second wave of telekinetic pushes rattled through the floor below us.

"We have a way to escape our cage," I confided as we burst into the blocks and the already-converted sisters closed in onto the still-conscious Crane. "At least one we believe has a high chance of success."

String Theory's manic grin widened as she realized that her tinfoil hat saved her from unconsciousness. It grew deranged when her trembling hand found the obvious trigger for her weapon, her final act of spite.

Our many layers defense protected even the robotic DNGR-units from the electromagnetic blast that disabled everything from the first floor down. String Theory's toys didn't have that same luxury as she found out immediately upon pushing the button.

We left her enough time to realize the full implications of what had happened. Missy impaled her through the wall String had retreated backward into.

"I get the feeling that it isn't that simple," Lustrum observed as String's arrogant smirk finally faltered upon noticing the claw sticking out her belly.

We scratched the back of our head. "I haven't been completely honest with you or anyone for that matter."

"Like that you do more than transform people?" she asked in a tone that made it clear she already knew and that she hoped I would have confided in her earlier.

"What gave it away?" we asked sheepishly.

On the floor below, String stopped convulsing and we could drop our silencing field around where she banged against the walls.

"Nothing directly," Lustrum assured. "But there was enough circumstantial evidence that brought us to that conclusion. We, me and the fellow Leaders, speculated that something wasn't right when you took on Teacher and his disgusting pets and won on the same day Acidbath disappeared. Even Labrat could see it after your stunt with Gavel."

"And then I've been also close to the Faerie Queen," I added, pausing a moment before starting the final assault.

We had more than enough time now that the biggest danger had joined us.

"That as well," Lustrum agreed with a smile. "Did you know that she called you her peer when we met to discuss your sudden rise." A shudder went through her. "She threatened to kill me for implying you needed help, even. You survived your encounter with that teacher, the pathetic excuse of a human being he was."

"Fair enough. So, what do you think I can truly do?" We knew all of this but it was fun to see how she reacted. It was nice to see that one's friends weren't fools.

"The theory I worked out with Kaze is that you can use the powers of one of your children." We nearly didn't notice the hitch between the last word.

With anyone else, we would have thought that she was just playing along with people's delusions out of self-preservation. With us, she seemed to be more focused on not hurting my feelings. It was weird to find that kind of compassion in the Birdcage.

"Close," I finally admitted and held up a smoldering hand as an example.

Her eyes darted between the happily waving Ember and my hand. "Close but not close enough. Let me give you a tip. It's more than one. Care to guess how many?"

True fear lanced through the hardened criminal in front of us as she tried to order her thoughts.

"Three just like the Faerie Queen," Lustrum finally suggested while we felt the connection of ten more DNGR units snap into place.

Interestingly, she hadn't seemed to think Eidolon to be worthy of a thought.

"We share our powers among everyone."

Lustrum's heart literally skipped a beat and different emotions were fighting for dominance in her brain.

We used that pause to start with the final floor of the Birdcage. The ones standing guard at the Hole were lured back into by a whispered command in Ingenue's voice. One of my hidden daughters who was close to Shrimp walked out of block B for a friendly chat.

"That means that," Lustrum started while everything was falling into place. "Basic Bitch wouldn't have been able to hurt you. _Marquis_ wouldn't have been able to do anything even ignoring his chauvinistic ways."

We gave an encouraging nod and we flooded Block A and fell over the quartet that was still standing after the rattlers. Ingenue's defensive measures didn't help them as we fired shards at them, suspending them in midair. We didn't take any risks and the twenty new DNGR units swarmed the floating forms simultaneously.

"You said ' _we_ ' when you talked about your escape." Ingenue didn't have any of the nasty surprises we feared and was _twisted_ along with her friends. "It's only you and yours that can escape. It will always be only the strongest ones that get more powerful."

Shrimp followed her friend out of view of Block A's main room and our baby playing Redneck began her own story about how there'd be a way to escape this hellhole. That there was a way to see the open sky again and soon.

"We've probed the vacuum surrounding us," I explained as shrimp hugged us. "There are drones out there that pose a threat even us and ones that we are completely unaware of. Ones that would destroy anything we'd be able to build even when I supplement what gets delivered into the 'Cage. More than that, I don't just want to escape. We want to _live_. I've been working tirelessly to achieve just that."

"How?" Lustrum demanded, raising her voice. "And why tell me all of this?"

"Teacher had a connection to the outside world through Dragon and then to Saint. I've build onto that crude line and expanded." We gave a mirthless chuckle. "All of us would have starved to death if I hadn't."

Lustrum's eyes widened. "The protests outside, the PRT leaks, the _booze_."

"All thanks to us," I confirmed while the matronly woman looked her age and then some as she let herself collapse into her chair. "And more still behind the scenes. But despite our efforts, we haven't found a way to just let us out. More importantly, I'm certain that even now, it's not enough. We need something big to convince the world."

The first of Lustrum's girls sat down to join us willingly when Pistol joined them looking just as she did as Shrimp.

"You want to take us," Lustrum almost snarled.

"Even if we were able to find another way to get those of us who can be trusted out, in none of our models you'd be able to live in the open. I have the advantage of being a teenager. When push comes to shove, it'll be enough to win the people over. You'd be mistrusted at best."

We turned the volume of the television in the courtyard up a couple of notches. The debate on the humanity of the Birdcage drowned the sound of people joining.

"Why even bother talking if you're so sure?" Much of her previous heat was replaced by weary apathy. "Why not just get it done with like you're probably doing to String Theory and Crane?"

We sighed. It wasn't mere luck or just raw power that allowed Lustrum to become and remain a Leader in the place where the worst Capes of society were sent to die. At least the worst ones the protectorate could catch and contain for long enough.

"You're one of the few I believe I could consider friends in this hell," we replied locking onto her eyes. "Even _if_ I could guarantee continued supply to this atrocity, I wouldn't allow you to stay here. You stood up for me enough times. It's time we did the same for you."

"And you can't wait until you go because?" We could see her toying with the idea of attacking us just to make a final point.

"There'll be a narrow window of opportunity to break out and convince the world we're a force of good," we explained in the hope I didn't have to attack her. "To avoid being haunted by the likes of Eidolon. We'll have to be ready for it and there's still so much to prepare. We simply don't want to see you suffer."

For a long time, the only sound heard in Lustrum's cell was that of the television droning in the background.

"I want you to promise one thing," she finally spoke long after the last woman had joined us. "I want you to _swear_ you're going keep my girls safe."

"We protect each other," I simply stated.

There wasn't anything more to be said.

"So, I'm going to see the sun again?" Lustrum asked after another pause.

"More than that," I replied with a grin. "We're going to show the world you don't send a man to do a woman's job."

It took a moment for her process it but then laughter filled the women's wing.

"Aye, between you, Glaistig, and Alexandria, the world has to be careful not to run out of jobs."

She held out her hand.

We took it and _twisted_.

* * *

Interlude: Eidolon

* * *

Eidolon massaged his temples, trying to rub out some of the incoming headache as he attempted to decide which power he could let go. It was a gesture he couldn't – wouldn't – allow himself to do when in public. It was a needed one now that the inevitable had come to pass.

The girl they had thrown into the Birdcage had left only herself and Glaistig Uaine as survivors and still, they weren't done with their other points on the agenda. Things were accelerating even while he felt himself grow weaker by the day.

It bubbled inside him. Restlessness gnawed at him as he was battling his frustrations and anxiety. Eidolon felt the fear rising in him. They had created something they wouldn't be able to control and had no precise method to plot.

Humanity's strongest hero felt at a loss upon realizing that he might get replaced soon – and they were still talking about another one of their ongoing experiments.

"People are still ecstatic about ENE's capture of Lung," Alexandria spoke. "Especially after hearing the field was reversible. Unless someone is against it, I would like to have Armsmaster's neglect for proper procedures and authorization overlooked in favor of discussing potential temporary transfers with Director Calvert."

An almost inaudible scoff came from Legend's side of the table at the true name of the notorious villain. "Do you have any candidates in mind?"

Alexandria gave him an annoyed look that softened quickly.

It had been hard for Legend to adapt to the new status quo after being informed of the full extent of their operations. It had been brewing for a long time, but the shifting models had forced their hand. They had to be more aggressive with their pursuits and everybody needed to be on board for them.

Legend was too true a hero to let them down after hearing what they were up against. He wouldn't allow the suffering he unwittingly aided in Cauldron's name to be in vain. He still believed that humanity had to be saved even if the cost had been higher than he had bargained for.

That the new director of ENE was still alive and kicking was proof of Legend's commitment. It had taken a lot out of him not to obliterate the snake from the face of the earth after he learned why Brockton Bay had exploded into open warfare.

David simply feared what would happen after all was said and done – if there they were to survive the end of the world. If that pressure of saving the world were to fall away.

"I would rather not broach the topic of Brockton Bay in my branch," Alexandria admitted, alluding to the two siblings that had recently joined the Los Angeles Wards. "But I was in discussion with Director Armstrong about how we could improve the perception of monstrous Capes."

Legend's eyebrow rose. "He wants to send Weld?"

"He believed the boy would benefit from seeing how things are handled elsewhere. I doubt that belief has changed since I last talked with him as Director Costa-Brown."

Eidolon almost believed the poker face she put on when touching upon how she had to let go of that position following the combined aftermath of the Shadow Stalker and Sliver trial scandals. It had likely been the one time she had been able to understand his worries. They all felt the loss of political power and Eidolon knew that Alexandria felt some guilt about her double landing in jail.

It was just that she could still easily influence her replacement as the legendary hero Alexandria. Her double would be a free woman after the hearings were done. Number Man even suggested it would make their position as a whole stronger since it removed one potential attack angle for Sliver's crusade against corruption.

He had to deal with countless of extra people dying because of his diminishing powers when the next Endbringer reared its ugly head. The effects of the booster shots were diminishing, and now he had to fear the crazed Faerie Queen collecting African warlords as well.

It took effort to stop himself from digging his fingers into his temples out of hopeless frustration.

"I think I could convince Wilkins that March might escalate to the next level if Flechette remains in New York," Legend said, ignoring the allusions to lost power. "I do see it becoming a problem if left unchecked. A break in the form of a temporary transfer might allow for things to cool down again."

"Just sending two Wards without replacements would be too much," Alexandria noted. "But with the collaboration between New York and Boston, it would probably work out if one of the older Brockton Bay Wards were to join either. They could exchange during the next exercise between the teams."

"I advise Golem to be that Ward," Number Man spoke up, one eye still on his tablet computer. "Seeing more of her peers would help a great deal in building her loyalty and trust in the Protectorate. In extension, a similar effect will be observed with Sliver. Golem is popular and versatile enough that neither director would object. Getting her into more Sliver-neutral teams will help in the long run."

A cold smile appeared on Legend's lips. "The snake won't be happy, though. Good. It's time that he learned the horrors of bureaucracy after all the work he put into becoming director."

Alexandria looked at Eidolon for any objection. He didn't have any.

"I'll set things into motion, then." The Doctor finished her notes.

"Can we finally talk about the monster in the room?" Eidolon finally spoke up. "What we're going to do about the Master who can convince others to forsake their humanity just by talking to them? Who doesn't have a problem doing that to supposed friends?"

"You're being unfair to Taylor," Legend nearly snarled, wielding Sliver's name as a weapon to remind everyone of the girl they had destroyed. "We've given her every reason to prepare for the absolute worst. We've molded her personality by ensuring she'd end up in hell. You don't get to complain that one of your schemes worked out too well for your tastes."

"You know full well what I mean," Eidolon nearly spat out his reply. "We didn't know that she'd grow to this extent – just that it was her best chance to help against Scion."

"It was the only way she'd be willing to help us with our victims who were left too crippled to contribute, you mean," the hero interjected. "How many are there now? Last time I built up the courage to check, we were into the thousands. I can see how subsuming less than four hundred convicted criminals is so much worse – or do I have to remind you what her supposed friend's followers did before Lustrum landed in the Birdcage?"

"No, you don't. And I'm painfully aware of the blood on my hands." Eidolon prayed to whatever might hear him that the good he did came close to balance things out. "But everything we did, all the suffering we caused, will be for naught if all we accomplished was making a rival to Scion."

"I know you're scared," the Doctor said as Legend deflated. "But the only thing we know for sure is that Scion will end us all. The girl you're terrified of will want to prevent that as much as you and I. Don't let your judgment be clouded by what could be and look at her actions. After all, you are terrifying enough in your own way."

"I've reviewed the footage," Alexandria added. "Sliver truly believes no one deserves to be down there and that her creatures are happy. She's also terrified the world will hunt her until the end of times if she reappears, and feels forced to prepare for that worst case. That doesn't mean she wants to fight. Taylor genuinely wants to live as part of society. She wants to help without being hounded."

"If Sliver wanted to see the world burn, she could have done so without ever setting a foot outside of prison," Number Man said contently. "Instead, she proved to be a refreshing adversary while she changed public perception in her favor and brought to light corruption in the PRT. After that, she modulated the outrage to allow dialogue for constructive changes."

Eidolon felt some of the indignation flow out of him, being replaced by the hopeless reminder of his own fears.

Number Man shrugged before he continued. "If nothing else, monsters don't donate millions of dollars of appropriated funds to cancer research. Doomsday machines and hidden bases are far sounder investments."

"It's just… I would feel a lot better if there was more we could do." Eidolon sighed, letting go of a power that would allow him to transform a city block into a blazing inferno. "We barely survive against the Endbringers and those have clearly defined powers. They present clear targets and we're slowly starting to predict their attacks. I can fight them. Even if Glaistig were to claim Moord Nag, I feel confident that I could achieve mutual destruction. We could win that fight if we went together.

"Sliver, though, she terrifies me. She isn't restricted with the number of simultaneous powers like I or the mad Faerie Queen. She isn't bound to a single body as a focus. How far is her estimated range again?"

"500 meters radius around her. Each of her creatures amplifying that range by an additional 100 meters," Number Man immediately replied.

Eidolon let a defensive power slip. Barriers wouldn't be of any use.

"Sliver is a Master/Stranger that can easily cover an area of two square miles. A Threat that also happens to have the powers of almost everyone thrown into the Birdcage and then some. Please, tell me that I'm not the only one who's anxious about her breaking out?"

"You aren't," Alexandria sympathized. "But no matter how much we wished otherwise, we can't put this back into a box. It isn't a problem we can solve through force alone but if we play our cards right, it's not even a problem that needs solving. Sliver might have delusions but those are manageable. They are less severe than Glaistig's and with Sliver around, we might also have a way to keep her from becoming a bigger problem."

Alexandria caught Eidolon's gaze. "In the end, there's little point in agonizing over things that might happen when the effort could be made to prevent them. In this case, help her get accepted when she decides the time is right. It's a cheap price to pay for her cooperation against Scion."

"I'd rank the price a very distant third after her being a child and god damned basic human decency but I agree," Legend muttered, becoming louder with each word. "We can't risk her feeling let down by the people she trusts. Not again. I've looked into her records and it surprises me that she still showed so much constraint with us. Unless…"

"Her online presence hasn't changed," Number Man supplied after a quick checked just that, typing with ever-increasing intensity. "No agenda is being pushed by her side other than that we already know of. The only abnormality I detected was an increase in power consumption of the Birdcage… One that will be detectable by others. She also prepares to go beyond the current maximum. She's building her robotic drones."

The mention of her robots hit Eidolon hard as he let another defensive power slip his grasp. Unless making a subterranean hive for Sliver was the way to pacify her, being able to twist mountainsides like clay wasn't going to help. Neither would it help deciphering the reason behind Number Man's growing worry.

An old fear, older than his current problems, reared its ugly head, whispering poisonous doubt into his mind. He was getting weaker, and Cauldron had just found another anomaly – a better anomaly than he ever was.

Eidolon felt the need to desperately grasp at any bit of relevancy he could. He was useless without a clear target. They already had a fitting replacement that didn't share his weakness when it came to scheming. One that managed to amuse Number Man with their invisible battle.

His time was running out, fast, and his legacy, the sole reason he could wake up in the morning and do what was expected of him, wasn't near complete.

"Any idea how she'll escape?" Eidolon asked to distract himself from his own thoughts.

"She might be able to make a teleporter sophisticated enough even with the few materials she has or simply blast through the defenses surrounding her," Alexandria replied. "Sliver could also manifest another power that takes an entirely different route. At this point, it's almost meaningless to ask as we won't be able to stop it."

"Regardless of which method will win out, I do know when," Number Man said, missing a beat and stopping with typing to look up. "The rate of consumption she's aiming it can only be sustained for four to six weeks before the power supply is fried. She'll leave in time for the next Endbringer attack..."

"Try to arrange contact between deputy commander Renick and Sliver." Alexandria shared the Number Man's sudden concerned look. "I'll cash in on some favors as Alexandria to get the transfers on their way as fast as possible."

"I'll talk with Armstrong and Wilkins. Maybe even the Wards of both branches to better sell the idea." An insincere chuckle slipped past Legend's lips. "I may as well start working on the speech for when Sliver does return. People expect me to do that stuff ad-hoc by now."

"Will you also prepare something else?" Alexandria asked, focusing on what they needed to do. "It's time we showed in public that we're against the Birdcage and methods similar to that. After Lung and with the Asylum's capabilities being more well known, now it's the right time to distance ourselves. It would certainly engender goodwill in Sliver. I could do it as well but, it'll likely seem too much of a planned move if I did. As you've said, people expect you to be the heart of us three."

"I'll do it," Eidolon offered before Legend could agree.

"Are you sure?" Docter asked, unable to keep the surprise out of her voice.

Eidolon didn't blame her. It was unexpected of soldier boy to show this much initiative.

"Yes. I don't have a team I risk losing by speaking out against established PRT policies. More importantly, I'm closer to Sliver when it comes to power. That should count for something."

He wouldn't become obsolete without putting up a fight. This was something he could do even with his powers diminishing.

"I could see that working," Alexandria replied cautiously as if waiting for a caveat.

"Just ask if you need any help," Legend joined in, likely glad that it wouldn't involve more experimentation.

"There's one thing I need before I start, though."

Another defensive power slipped through his grasp, another spike of annoyance caused by his agent lanced through Eidolon behind his mask. He would welcome any precog power to increase his chances.

"A booster shot?" Doctor guessed. "Why? The next attack is still at least a month away and it would be too early to give another one before that if you take one now."

Eidolon gave a scared half-smile. "I'm going to talk to Glaistig Uaine first. She knows Sliver and might be willing to give advice. In any way, it would be prudent to reassure her that the Triumvirate won't hunt down her only friend. I simply want to make sure I have the best chances of surviving that encounter if it goes pear-shaped."

Number Man's soft mutters were the only thing that marred the silence that followed his announcement.

Eidolon knew they would agree shortly.

To appeal to anomalies, you sent your one of your own.

Maybe the mad Queen had other ideas how to keep their fellow monster content.

"Oh." A simple statement that shouldn't be the cause of dread, nor what Eidolon would have expected.

Dulled surprise wasn't often associated with the Number Man. Not when a hint of smug satisfaction was the norm after a frenzy of activity.

"What happened?" Alexandria asked with real worry etched into her unaging face.

"I've wondered why Sliver would need to increase energy so drastically." His glasses reflected windows opening and closing at staggering speeds. "She should be able to produce more energy than she'd ever need."

"It's also uncharacteristic of her to be so blatant," the heroine caught on.

"Right. So I dug deep and went through her search history over the last few months and found an interesting trend the last weeks. Something I dismissed as basic research when it happened. She has been looking into previous Endbringer locations. Yesterday, she also performed a thorough worldwide search for energy anomalies. Since she didn't set anything into motion against Phir Sē, it merely landed on her extensive list of potential targets."

Alexandria made a strangled noise as she had apparently come to the same conclusion as the Number Man.

"So, what does that mean?" Legend asked, terrified confusion being apparently the only thing that was holding him in place.

"It means that Eidolon should get his booster shots and be on his way asap." Number Man took a deep sigh as if to acknowledge defeat. "What it means is that she thinks she succeeded where we failed for all this time. She believes she has discovered the way how Endbringers pick their targets."

Eidolon held on tightly to the teleporter power his agent decided to present.

"She didn't convert Lustrum just because she wanted to spare her the loneliness," Legend mumbled.

Doctor was already moving to where Eidolon knew she prepared his booster shots. The Number Man adjusted his glasses.

"Sliver intends to lure the next Endbringer straight to her doorstep."


	6. Chapter 5-1

**Neither Worm or Magic the Gathering belongs to me. If you recognize it, chances are high it belongs to either John McCrae or Wizards of the Coast.**

 **Big thanks to PitaEnigma for betaing and proofreading the chapter.**

 **Recently (-ish) I've learned that one of the reasons that I used FFN mainly as an archive - namely troubles applying corrections to chapters - was either fixed or caused by a bug in the first place.**

 **This poses the question whether people would prefer shorter chapters that are delivered more regularly (-ish) or the big blocks as before? I'm truly curious for people's opinions so, please, let me know when posting a review/a piece of feedback or simply throw a pm my way if you reviewing isn't your thing but still want your opinion to be heard. On a related note, also feel free to pm mistakes you might've spotted. I'll try to correct stuff as best my schedule allows.**

 **On a similar note, thank you very much for the reviews, follows, and favorites. It's quite frankly a bit overwhelming.**

 **Either way, I hope you enjoy the chapter and the experimental foray into smaller bite-sized chunks.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5.1**

* * *

"Fuck!" we cursed and hissed as the lights flickered once again while the secondary backup generators kicked in. Warnings and error messages filled the screens at speeds that would have stumped many a Thinker.

Two weeks.

That was all we got before things went sideways and the other boot dropped out of an entirely different angle than any of our simulations could have predicted.

We urgently sent what we hoped to be the final touches of the dimensional anchor to our factory topside. The raw DNGR units there would just freeze without our direct input or when their programming halted. They had no powers of their own which could be used if they stumbled across a problem – or when reality decided that it needed to enforce some sense on our creation and Lindy was needed to find another workaround.

The one-way teleporter we had slaved over needed to have a compatible target it could both find. Without the anchor stabilizing it, the portal would collapse before even we were able of thinking of crossing it. It was the best design we could develop that promised results in a month or less and even then, the teleporter itself needed some exotic materials. Resources we were only able to create by unleashing the full force of our Tinker might upon materials we were able to grow ourselves. We didn't have access to that method on the outside. Our robotic brethren were still without a true connection to us.

The very air vibrated with another angry hiss when one of the landlines connecting our forced home to the outside world was severed, corrupting our commands in the process.

There hadn't been any signs that something was out of the ordinary. The Simurgh had returned to passively floating in space and watching earth after shooting down our experimental rocket. Our data suggested that Leviathan was slumbering in the deeps while keeping the legends of the Bermuda triangle alive. It was a scary sleep wanderer.

None of the many, many geological stations we had forcefully access in preparation of our return had detected patterns that were out of the ordinary. Not even a sign of Behemoth thrashing due to a nightmare or whatever it did after tunneling into the very earth.

We were sure that whatever was attacking us wasn't the latter. We planned on baiting Behemoth into attacking the Birdcage and as such we put a lot of effort into detecting the Herokiller's every possible twitch.

Instead, the only thing we detected was a small pocket of snow and wind forming in the Canadian Rockies. It was unusual but not unheard of. There was always a chance that a new Cape was testing their powers far away from civilization – some poor climber might have even triggered while trying to conquer some mountainside or the other for the first time. Humans were weird sometimes.

Warning bells started ringing softly when the localized snowstorm started moving towards us, but there were plenty of automated defenses around the very mountain-turned-inhumane-prison we called home. From drones to mines to turrets, sweeping through the electromagnetic spectrum and then some, ready to neutralize any intruder with escalating force and exotic methods. We didn't have any way of controlling them – much like the internal defenses – but we were able to monitor their existence indirectly. There was no reason to start worrying. They were built to handle a bit of wind and snow and then some.

When the first drones simply disappeared and the PRT channels erupted like a wildfire, we kicked our DNGR-unit production into overdrive and wrote a quick post to warn the PHO we might be unavailable for some time.

It was only when the seismic sensors detected burrowing near one of the Birdcage's power supplies that we were ready to face the reality of the situation. Rationalizing that it's some new and powerful parahuman taking a stab at being a villain was so much more comforting than the alternative. We were friends with Ciara. We were powerful. It was a comfortable possibility.

It was also a lie. We didn't want to imagine what would happen if, somehow, a new Endbringer popped up. There hadn't been a new one for eight years. We had plans and backups what to do against Behemoth. Scab gave us a good chance to survive against it even without our other brothers and sisters who made us more resilient. We ran scenarios to develop strategies to counter Simurgh in case they decided to cheat. Even Leviathan was analyzed to death just to be prepared against a true curveball.

A new Endbringer was scary.

It meant having to discover a whole new set of methods for getting killed through experience. We would be going in blind – if we got out safely in the first place. People were about to die unnecessarily.

We let out a string of curses that would have made Dad blush in shame and Mom gasp in horror when whatever decided to attack us found the mainline. Our last connection to the outside world was cut. The teleporter wouldn't be finished. We had to accept the facts.

A new Endbringer had appeared. It had been summoned because of our efforts to lure Behemoth to our humble abode. All because we wanted to return to the civilization without being hunted the moment a hero saw us.

The last thing we saw before our internet connection was killed was the Protectorate issuing a general Endbringer warning and an international call for help. They had seen the same systems failing as I did. The satellites showed the straight path the snowstorm had taken towards the secret location of the Birdcage. We had a "guard" contact them when the second installation was destroyed, and more defensive measures were simply lost.

We weren't the numbers we would've liked for such an undertaking, and the ability to make more robotic children would halt the moment the last aboveground generator was ripped to pieces.

The week had started so well and for a few days, we had allowed to ourselves to feel optimistic about our chances against both the Herokiller and the preconceptions the people held against us. Eidolon had taken the first step by befriending Ciara, and together they caught Ash Beast. He even held a public speech condemning the continued use of the Birdcage after the Asylum had proven that individualized option worked, bringing up the thirteen of innocent capes that landed in the inescapable prison without means of pardon. He didn't mention us, but he did close with urging those who could to fight the Endbringers – that all help was needed to drive these monsters away.

Emma had a great time in the Big Apple as well. She couldn't and wouldn't shut up about the wonders of the city nor about how avant-garde they were. Sam had become another point of admiration and Emma had said more than once that she couldn't wait until she could introduce me to the duplicator and show me around.

If the rapid series of realizations hadn't soured our good mood the last week had brought, then the knowledge that any moment the first heroes would teleport in to stop the new threat certainly did. They had to prevent it from tearing the entire facility to the ground and possibly wandering towards civilization.

And we were forced to use one of the backup plans I didn't want to use because it attacked before the teleporter was finished.

Jem started dismantling the block above us for scraps while we had others help focus on helping her or use the metal to make the last dozen brethren they would yield.

We weren't doubting that we could escape the mountain eventually. The problems with a straight-forward break-out were still the drones lurking in the vacuum and the seemingly empty space itself. It was impossibly big. During the exploratory flights into the unknown by our brave DNGR-units, we came no closer to piercing the oppressing darkness surrounding us. The drones were apparently adapting as well since the last three reconnaissance expeditions ended by the unit getting shot by a beam that disconnected it from us like the explosions did earlier. The shots came outside of our sphere of influence and they came more quickly after each subsequent encounter. It felt like the last vestige of spite from Dragon.

The drones could still be shot down through a combination of giving ourselves access to precog through Pinkie and overwhelming firepower.

What couldn't be solved as easily was the emptiness the Cage was suspended in.

Every time we tried to measure it, the results were inconclusive. Light and projectiles simply disappeared after a while. Nothing bounced back. No radiation reached us from the outside.

It had taken a couple of DNGR units shooting hard light projectiles at specific coordinates for us to model a basic understanding of the trouble we were in. The distance at which the beams ceased to be were triangulated and mapped to form a daunting picture. It wasn't just that the whole thing had to be either shrunk down to a scary degree or was in some sort of pocket dimension that was accessible through the facility in Canada.

At least we could rule out the latter theory thanks to the cheating Endbringer's meddling. The bandwidth we received down here and the lack of foreign isotopes on the supply drops had already been decent indicators against the hypothesis. The immediate reactions to the attacks up in the Rockies that we observed down here put it to rest. It went against the measure of self-sufficiency needed to make the Birdcage work in a pocket-dimension. The lights wouldn't flicker for the moment the sensors registered another generator being destroyed.

This meant that we were likely shrunk down and that Teacher's research into the matter had been accurate. It also meant that the border we only began to map was terrifying considering everything going through it was simply destroyed. When already messing with space-time, one might as well use the same technology as an active deterrent.

We were pretty sure the death zone was where space was folded in such tight knots that reality simply broke down and gave up. With how irregularly it was shaped – our beams sometimes continuing for hundreds of miles before simply becoming undone while at other times it happened at less than a single one – it painted an unpleasant picture.

We were probably surrounded by a three-dimensional maze made of broken space, filled with machines that could kill hundreds of us in a single strike, and that prevented us from even knowing how far ahead we could "see".

If we wanted to brute-force our way out, we likely had to traverse thousands of miles of booby-trapped space even if we somehow picked the correct route during our first attempt.

And to top it all off, we had evidence that the maze was constantly warping, moving, and transforming. We hadn't been able to do enough measurements to prove it with certainty due to the increasingly heavy losses. It would, however, explain how the supply drops and prisoners could safely reach hell while the tubes were one giant deathtrap at all other times. Without everything just collapsing into itself due to the strain. It would also solve the conundrum of how the drones consistently managed to get the drop on us.

The defenses cheated, and I had no way of interfering directly.

Our most naively optimistic models estimated that it would take hours for us to get to the edge of the vacuum and that was assuming there weren't any other traps we couldn't know of.

We simply didn't have that much time.

Even if we didn't care about the countless parahuman lives that would be lost in the nearby future, we didn't think it would take more than hours before the Endbringer would get to the last backup generators buried deep inside the mountain.

We didn't want to be anywhere near this affront to reality when it lost the power to sustain itself. That was one of the scenarios that made other Capes leery of Tinkers.

The last couple of connections snapped into place in rapid succession while we gathered in the last two remaining blocks. We had to chuckle when it became abundantly clear how lucky we were that we could fly and were pretty small. We would've needed far more space even if we had the same lack of personal space concerns as we did now.

I transformed out of my comfortable form back into Taylor. We needed to have the mass to do the next bit.

We put into the cold, logical mind we had calculated long ago in case we had to use this unfavorable scenario.

We _pulled_.

Our skin started to bubble and get loose before my arm along with most of my shoulder and four ribs broke off. They pulled at the skin, tearing every last scrap of sticky, droopy substance from our neck down to the tights.

We quietly appreciated the fact that we long since learned how to stop feeling pain. It would have marred our enjoyment of watching the skin congeal into the typical – if skinny – form of our children. The bifurcated horn grew even as we were repairing our body at a faster rate. A skeletal grin showed as the rest of the head formed.

I was ready to embrace little Isaac when the world suddenly lost focus and definition. The Birdcage simply disappeared and was instead replaced by eddies and whirls in a technicolor emptiness we felt more than saw.

There wasn't any air to carry words that might comfort the confused baby. We didn't need them to convey our love to the brave little guy. Coalescing into a ball of hugs and noodly goodness was more than enough to calm him.

Too soon we broke up and started to explore.

Even though we managed to find a way to cheat ourselves didn't mean we could kick back and relax. We had our work cut out for us.

Thanks to Isaac we knew that we were between dimension – between worlds. A place where language was ill-equipped to describe what was happening thanks to the sudden addition of hundreds of new dimensions we could move into. Going green meant moving closer to one alternative earth, going green-C-sharp would lead to yet another. The turbulences connected to where local space-time was messed up.

The place our old "home" occupied was an absolute convoluted mess that would give the Gordian knot a splitting headache. One so dense that our little bout of exploration ended before it even truly started. We couldn't get anywhere without crossing at least a dozen of eddies.

Luckily one of the DNGR units volunteered to touch these angrily pulsing whirlpools and…

… it hurt a bit, we felt numbed, hot, and cold at the same time. What didn't happen was the space collapsing or DNGR-41 getting shredded to bits. It just felt uncomfortable and then it was done.

We giggled as we realized how thoroughly we had the system beat. A giggling that evolved into full-on laughter when we managed to complete the picture of the place in relation to our dimension. That devious AI somehow managed to orientate the 'Cage perpendicular to the ground and had introduced artificial gravity to complete the ruse.

Our previous best-case scenario had been to hop into an alternate earth, blast our way out of the mountain, and pop back home to kick some Endbringer ass. This cut out the middle man.

We had dreaded the possibility of ending somewhere "in between" since we had no guarantee that we could find our way or even survive there. Simulation estimated our chances of simply drifting off into the beyond as prohibitively high.

Instead of that, we had a leisurely flight towards what could've only been the imprint the Endbringer left while snuggling with our newest child. We couldn't think of many other things that didn't just mess up the space of one tonal color but even mixed them together – especially this close by and rapidly moving.

All too soon, we reached what was likely to be a safe spot over what had to be the battlefield.

Bitterness and sorrow welled up inside us as Isaac nuzzled us one last time and flew towards the giant anomaly.

We couldn't stay. We didn't have a way to guess how time flowed here in the in-between compared to our home dimension – nor how long transitioning back would take.

We couldn't stay in Limbo.

Little Isaac couldn't turn off his powers.

There'd be no messenger; no ram.

My brave Isaac gave one last pulse of warmth and comfort before he started mixing outlandish base and acid inside himself.

The pain made our vision white out and forms suddenly took shape.

Even over the howling wind, a loud, angry snarl of pain was heard from where we knew the Endbringer was last seen. Pride accompanied the feeling of Isaac returning to his peaceful slumber in the back of our mind – this time ready to be returned with the slightest nudge.

We opened our tear-filled eyes with a sniff and were greeted with snow and carnage below.


	7. Chapter 5-2

**Neither Worm or Magic the Gathering belongs to me. If you recognize it, chances are high it belongs to either John McCrae or Wizards of the Coast.**

 **A big many thanks to Roffster for betaing and proofreading this sizable chapter.**

 **So, it has taken a while but it's finally here. The next chapter of Taylor's Canada Vacation!**

 **In all seriousness, though, I do apologize for taking this chapter taking this absurdly long. Truth is, IRL issues were a bit of a dick the last couple of months and got reinforcement with health issues that left me positively unable to produce anything resembling writing. Well, less so than before, anyway.**

 **To be clear, I do not plan to abandon any of my projects. I've plenty of things planned for all of them and I do indeed still enjoy writing (if stuff isn't hindering it at least). I won't make any promises I might not be able to keep other than, and I truly hope it'll never come to this, that I'll inform people if a project has to be abandoned.**

 **With that out of the way, do enjoy the chapter.**

 **And yes, I know this likely doesn't fall under "smaller, more regular chapter". The content, however, necessitated this length. Nothing I can do about it.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5.2**

* * *

We heard some cries of alarm that was followed by radio chatter and a nagging tug to somewhere…

Apparently breaking reality and then hastily stitching it back together as if nothing happened didn't quite work. If the vague snippets we only managed to catch thanks to our children were any indication, it had been quite a flashy and loud reentry into normalcy – and surprisingly colorful too.

We cloaked ourselves thoroughly before diving deeper into the blizzard, getting closer to the ground and the fighting. There was an urge, a _need_ to spread outward now that we finally could – one that we barely managed to suppress by reminding ourselves that if a single one of us was spotted, panic would probably spread. Starting from a hundred feet our combined visual augments were able to pierce the abnormal snowstorm.

The heroes were losing. That much had to be expected with any Endbringer battle.

What startled us – what we hadn't expected – was how much of a _slaughter_ it had been.

Below us lay twisted, torn, and broken human forms. All of them isolated and soon covered by enough snow to hide them from everyone who didn't have some form of x-ray vision. Digging up the frozen remains of an unlucky victim confirmed that infrared would do very little to help their potential discovery either. The head wasn't simply smashed. It was _shattered_ , curls of frozen meat and bone marking where a claw scraped the partial stump in between jagged edges.

Experiencing his final moments only served to verify my assumption that the dilated pupil of his sole remaining eye nestled in the mess that had been his face was one of terror. Sheer, mindless terror. One moment, he had been trying to find his way back to someone, _anyone_. The legs had to be flash frozen. Something that couldn't be said about the rest of the body. The torso was ugly and uneven with chunks missing where the hero was torn apart. His pain had only ended when the cold that had fixed the head to the neck and upper body had truly permeated the former, causing the same force that had ripped the hero apart to shatter it.

At least now we were able to say whom the lower body belonged to. That only left the other two dozen sets of macabre, frozen human jigsaw puzzle we were able to spot. Some of whom had decidedly not been as lucky as the one I uncovered and whose still-functioning armband I was removing. Some tears had been far messier. Some bled out slowly if the pool of frozen blood was any indication. Some simply had pieces of themselves missing in a manner that had horrible implications.

Calling what had happened a battle would have been false. We hoped that maybe, we stumbled upon an unlucky group of Capes that got lost in the whiteout. That the surprise this attack posed led to the initial analysis being too far off and they went in with the wrong paranoid expectations. Something had thrown them off for there not to be a sign of an organized counterattack. There were a couple of panicked attacks but those were few and wholly inadequate for dealing with a monster like that. There were no barrier walls like we observed in the footage of the Leviathan attacks, we didn't hear the deep rumble of heavy weapons being fired like they did against Behemoth. The armband wasn't fitted with anything other than basic communication abilities.

Soon we found small, unorganized groups of surviving capes scattered around as we spread out. They were tense, eyes flitting around, backs almost pressed together, and their powers ready to be unleashed to their fullest at the slightest twitch. We left an undetectable DNGR unit with each group and a daisy-chain connecting them to us while spreading out as fast as we dared. We had to find the monster that came knocking on our door - that we had unwittingly summoned. We felt responsible and _knew_ that none of them would be ready to face what had felled the rest. We could protect them when the Endbringer dared to show its face.

Spreading out also increased the chance of finding the monster in the first place. From our observations before entering into the thick of the unnatural storm, we should've already covered at least a third of it. We were certain that the Endbringer had been here recently and still we couldn't find a clue. It was the other, more pragmatic reason for focusing on the groups we found. Even if we wouldn't find it, the next victim would sooner or later be one of the Capes we watched over. It was a matter of simple statistics.

A roar briefly managed to pierce the howling wind that accompanied the whiteout before being cut short. We rushed towards what we thought was the source, only to lose track as soon as we set off. Lights pierced the white in the direction we set off to and started moving once again, only to leave us as confused as we were before.

" _Triumph deceased._ " It was two minutes after we arrived on the battlefield and last heard a similar flurry of comments.

Now that we had an armband of our own and had DNGR units nearby active Capes, we could easily pick up on what was being said. Orders to retreat or group up if that didn't work were given. Panicked reports about missing partners were relayed alongside what had to be breaches of communications protocol. Most of them came after the command not to go looking for the body of one of our home town's heroes. Even so, we knew that many more already had their privileges revoked. The cursing and shouting that accompanied their fruitless jabs at the two buttons on their armbands was harrowing. People had lost their friends and couldn't accept the reality that they couldn't look for their remains.

It became all too clear that we had to find the new Endbringer and had to do it quick. It wasn't just it that posed a danger. Among the groups where heroes and villains we identified as originating from the same place, the tension and open hostility were rising. Paranoia started to take its toll and we feared that the monster that was hunting in the storm wouldn't be responsible for the most deaths at the end of the day.

We decided to get out of the storm and find the command centrum. We were certain that we had already seen it in the form of a cluster of lights at the other edge of the blizzard when we first emerged. There wasn't anything in that direction according to the blueprints, deeds, satellite images, and numerous security reports we dug up. It was just a matter of getting there and we'd finally be able to start helping.

Getting out and over the storm should have been a matter of a fraction of a second – an action we only planned for to avoid causing panic through making temporary holes in the blizzard for unlucky Capes to see. We _knew_ where we saw those lights and would've only needed the ability to see magnetic fields to make a beeline to it. Even if that somehow failed, we had more navigational tools than we could shake our claws at.

It took the announcement of another Cape's death, to come back to our senses and realize how screwed we actually were. We had not only failed to just fly up and get out of the storm, we had also failed to notice something was off. It wasn't that we hadn't noticed the complete lack of any progress every time we started to move. It was more that we first forgot to care about that observation and then forgot we made it in the first place.

We knew exactly where we were and the scout DNGR units were still with their Cape clusters. Whenever we started to move with the intention to get out, it would last for less than a tenth of a second before we came to a complete stop – somehow more spread out than before and closer to the center.

A couple of quick tests showed that trying to get away from each other worked fine but the opposite was a challenge even our perfect awareness of where our bodies were. Seeing our target helped as did knowing that the Endbringer was fucking with all. Still, it explained why we managed to find the stragglers. They just happened to be downstream of the death trap the monster had created. It had been mere chance that we had found them.

We blamed that unseen, unnoticed, insidious compulsion to get to the center for flying in headfirst as well. We wouldn't have been in this situation if we had first talked to command as was our original plan.

The attempt of trying to get out by spreading far and wide was aborted when our constant coordinate checks revealed that there seemed to be an upper limit. One we expected to find to prevent flyers from accidentally getting out.

That left us the dynamic option borne from a rising urgency to start hunting the bastard in earnest.

We grabbed hold of Unit 191 who was rolled up into a tight, cuddly ball. Then we threw him straight up and loosened a barrage of physical projectiles for good measures. The sonic boom 191 created when he left our hands was only trumped by the sheer wall of noise the eye-searing focus point of explosion, hard light beams, and more mundane projectiles made when they hit the flying DNGR unit.

A grin and a chuckle spread among us as we slowed our brave explorer to a stop before she left our sphere of influence and multiple things became clear. With a part of us outside, moving any other direction than to the center became much easier. The hole our action created in the snowstorm showed that the snow itself was an important vector after we felt the resistance grow with the white menace's return. Even then, its influence seemed to gradually grow less. It still didn't get rid of the faint tug I felt towards an area that was decidedly _not_ the center of the storm.

Most importantly, we were out. Ignoring the panicked shouts of those who had seen and heard our little stunt was a price we were more than happy to pay. We would be able to explain ourselves and calm people down in a few moments time anyway. Then we could use our insight to start rescuing stranded capes.

We heard the machine bleeping and felt their sweeps of sound, light, electricity, magnetism, and many more wash over us when we came close to the heroes' base of operation. Turrets we were sure didn't exist before were strategically placed to likely erase any one spot of their surrounding from existence as soon as they were detected. Fliers patrolled the sky and brutes patrolled the perimeter. Inside one of the heavily isolated and even better-guarded tents, a few groans of pain were heard as wounded Capes got treated.

We didn't need half of our olfactory enhancements nor our darling Phobos to taste the fear that lay over the fortified position like a smothering blanket. To be on the safe side, we decided that it would be wiser to try and approach the situation from the front door instead of just popping up unannounced in the headquarters. It would cost far more time to even start negotiating and we ran a real risk of not being heard at all thanks to our status as recent escapees. The atmosphere, however, made the only possible outcome the mother of all twitch reactions with an extra helping of fire and death.

Our goal had always been to get out and make sure that everyone knew we weren't unreasonable. We didn't want to scare people away by making the world think that we were some archvillain with plans for world domination. Sadly, part of that involved compromise and showing the willingness to listen to others.

That didn't mean we wouldn't do everything within our tenuous legal limits and beyond to skew the advantage as much in our favor as we ever could.

While we had the DNGR-Unit land far enough away from the entrance to not raise suspicion and transform into Taylor, we had already reconfigured, upgraded, and integrated the armband we found directly into Lindy. Dragon had spared no expenses when designing the things and we chuckled when our isolation ended more thoroughly with each bounce of another satellite. We would never again be without internet as long as one of us could see the clear skies. Or even particularly cloudy ones for that matter. We didn't feel like taking chances.

Which was just as well since the boards wouldn't keep themselves free of mischief. That we now had another direct line into the PRT servers was a nice bonus – one we would quietly keep to ourselves, for the time being. If we had learned anything on that hive of scum and villainy that was PHO, paranoia was the fuel that kept the world running. We feared to simulate their reaction upon finding out that much of it was true.

Walking towards the entrance, we cycled through a couple of outfits, trying to decide what would be the right balance between business, non-threatening, and heroic. The basic prison outfit we wore until it didn't matter anymore certainly wouldn't do. There was no Ciara whom people might have thought we wanted to upstage by wearing something fancier than the veil she added.

Unit 329 forced us to shuffle and shift some of us around by following an India Cape that suddenly decided to just wander off. It made us prioritize getting the extra units to where we were.

Even if we could likely dedicate one of us to every single person caught in the hellish snowstorm and then the ones need to keep them connected, simulations showed that the chance of it being enough to deal with the Endbringer was soberingly slim. And that was assuming the monster didn't pull any other tricks that isolated them through sheer force. This in turn meant, we had to weave a much tighter net with contingencies and backups. All of this meant we needed to be more.

Luckily for us, our reestablished and reinforced digital lifeline to the outside world also reached the factory we had appropriated. The one where we had another thousand or so of our robotic counterparts waiting to meet and join us with a single touch. Making a teleporter to a compressed, distorted and twisted space without our powers directly connected to might have been too tall an order. Getting one to work through remote control while knowing the exact target and making preparations with exotic materials on the receiving end?

Predictions showed that we could do that in less than half an hour if we didn't bother with subterfuge. Considering the cat would soon be out of the bag and that we came to appreciate strength in numbers, we saw no reason not to go for broke. It was also why every one of us except our ambassador had grown jewels and was busy converting energy into mass – shunted off and ready to be used for a big punch at a moment's notice.

A strong electromagnetic wave washed over our diplomat.

"Halt!" the sentry, Horizon, shouted when she spotted 329 and our triplet of decoy noodles that were hitching a ride with her. "Identify yourself!"

We didn't try to inform the heroine that if it was anyone else, her commands would have been lost in the howling gale and regular snow that separated us. Nor did we let it show we could hear her communicate discovery in a clip, professional manner. We tried not to pout when she identified us as "possible hostile".

It wasn't her fault that we had chosen an outfit that scored high in both the visibility and uniqueness category. One might even say that it was borderline audacious.

There were few Capes who went out in bright green outfits that only had a handful of darker details. Not when they weren't sure that they'd survive most of what could possibly be thrown at them after making a target of themselves. Unless there was some sort of strict dress code among a closely-knit group of heroes, chances were bright green would stick out like a sore thumb.

Of those few that were sturdy, brave, confident or foolish enough to stick out of the crowd, none were that cheeky to then also copy the outfit of Alexandria, _the_ example and aspiration of flying bricks everywhere. It would only serve to have enemies take them up on that unspoken challenge and alienate her many loyal fans. Girls _and_ boys all secretly dreamed of being Alexandria at one point in their lives.

We knew we did as much, and that we'd be angry to see someone potentially sully her legacy.

"We've come to help," we clearly enunciated to ensure Horizon would be able to read our lips while lifting our arms as an act of non-aggression and compliance.

We couldn't help but smile when seeing the felt-like patches of aqua on our forearms. The ones, we had seemingly stitched onto our form-fitting cotton suit. They were at the same places as Alexandria had her reinforced gloves. The same color and material was repeated to indicate her boots while forest green stitches and markings copied the few decorative details.

It looked home-made and the colors were too bright to not clash with each other.

It made our inner eight-year-old squeal with glee that we had the chance to dress up as our childhood hero.

We could have just as easily made a perfect copy but then we had to explain how we got the materials needed to make our costume. The different fabrics we used, while good quality and clean, were such one could reasonably expect to be freely available in a prison with locked up super-inventors. It would serve us no good if everyone became too suspicious right from the get-go.

Our peaceful intentions were made easily guessable even without us playing along without appearing to be too weak. Daring to dress up like the leader of the Triumvirate in a serious situation like this also showed we were confident enough to survive most hits.

At least, that was the theory.

Feeling the big, dark green cape flap majestically behind his in sync with our dark, long hair, made it all seem pretty inconsequential. Even without being able to fill the costume as impressively as Alexandria did – even knowing that we were sure to cause severe eye-strain to anyone with even a beginning of an understanding of fashion and color theory, we couldn't help the grin that spread across our face. We knew for a fact that we struck an impressive figure thanks to our efforts to maximize the billowiness of our flowing cape.

After all this time, we finally felt like a hero ready to save the world. All that was left to do was to convince those in charge they needed us. A thing that might prove tricky if the futuristic canons and searchlights swiveling towards were any indications.

We let them have their little piece of mind as we basked in the warmth of the light bathing us. It was a nice change of the cold, clinical lights that had accompanied us during our stay in the birdcage. It highlighted the design differences of our costume we had decided on.

Instead of the tower standing tall on my breast, a stark white representation of our children was emblazoned upon the small area. The cute head and claw were tugged in while the bifurcated tail was coiled around it protectively. We had also forgone the covering helmet Alexandria wore after her first clash with the Siberian in favor of a mask that barely covered anything of our face. In truth, the mask was nothing more than a thin strip of cloth with holes for the eyes in it – one we only had decided to put on to honor Cape traditions.

We _wanted_ them to see our face. We _wanted_ them to identify us easily.

Even if they somehow didn't recognize us, the three happily waving DNG-units disguised as Leafy, Gonzo, and Jem who rode along on 329 should be able to jog along the collective memories. We knew that the PRT was aware of them as much as they knew the extent of our innate powers.

The extended panic attack had been cathartically entertaining while it lasted. Before Saint's stunt and Leviathan attack on the newly established secret weapons laboratory in London pushed that news into the background. After all, we were already safely locked away in the 'Cage and had already been forgotten at the time.

A small recreation of that panic was happening while we were patiently waiting for them to engage proper procedures. From an eagle-eyed view, we could clearly see how Capes were shuffled around in camp and that the reinforced medic tents got strengthened even further. Capes from Europe, Asia, and Africa were herded inside, to be replaced by, if not friendly at least faces we were expected to know.

" _Hack deceased_." Chevalier took the latest casualty as a sign to obviously make an executive decision and began to stride towards the exit that was nearest to 329.

"We mean no harm," we tried to reassure the heroes that were taking perimeter around us. "We _will_ honor the Truce."

Chevalier was joined by Miss Militia on his grim march and we hoped that Narwhal would be considerate enough not to try and stop them. This time five Capes decided to take their chances after the announcement and ran off into the blizzard. Talk about nobody being safe when a veteran team had fallen victim to the Endbringer began to pop up. Rivals and outright enemies that happened to end up on the same team.

We had to get back in there and be allowed to move overtly. Somehow, we got the feeling that the monster was keenly aware of our presence. That it was purposefully staying out of our range and attacked those it knew we wouldn't be able to help.

Our routine of ignoring the softly glowing cannons and Parahumans who were a mere twitch away from unleashing their full might upon poor 329 and cuddly friends came to an end before we felt forced to become more proactive. Much to the fortune of everyone involved.

Gates previously hidden in the tinkertech walls opened to reveal a grim-looking Miss Militia taking point while Chevalier followed behind closely. We slowly lowered our arms in return and chanced a happy little wave before moving to our implied meeting point. Narwhal was the last to exit the relative safety of the base, hatred rolling off her strongly enough that one wouldn't have needed enhanced senses to taste it. Her eyes alone, fixated on our proxy, told volumes about how much she hoped we started things. How the barriers she was preparing weren't likely to be used to protect her colleagues from attacks she deemed survivable.

"That's far enough, Sliver," Chevalier stated when we entered full view and range of every defensive measure they prepared. He sounded self-confident and tolerant without much of the anxiety showing we felt when he stared at us with too-big eyes.

We happily obliged by halting amid armed Tinker-tech mines, ready to be remotely detonated.

Sure, the hero hadn't shown any open hostility but that didn't mean he felt obliged to inform us if any threats that would be activated if we didn't comply fast enough. To some, we still were a monster that had already happened. Our presence alone was an implied threat after how they treated us combined with the fact that we had very much escaped our fate despite their efforts. After the last couple of months, we could certainly understand and almost appreciate the amount of preparation they managed to pour into the meeting in such a tiny amount of time. It showed that even if they didn't like us, they at least respected our might.

We returned the favor by not informing them of the many ways we could've taken over their show if we so desired. What might have happened if we didn't care about our fellow humans dying in hell's snowstorm less than two miles away. A lot of my children nursed a grudge for being thrown into that inhumane prison. Durga, for example, obediently suppressed her urge to crush the entire complex with a giant projection of our noodly form.

"I'm sent by the Protectorate to confirm your intentions," Chevalier continued after being informed that we weren't doing anything he couldn't perceive behind his back. "We would gladly accept your help should you so wish. Due to your unusual circumstances and nature of this crisis, however, I have to inform you that we'd request you to work in constant communication with and ideally under the supervision of command."

The grip on his cannonblade tightened. "People are dying, and we can neither tolerate distractions nor infighting."

We nodded in agreement. "We can live with that. We too have things we'd like to ask and suggest which would be done much quicker face-to-face with the ones in charge." We looked the hero in the eyes and gave a sweet smile that would've made Siren proud. "Are we allowed to enter now? We promise we'll be good."

Another burst of communication happened between Chevalier and whoever orchestrated things in the base.

" _Mr. Rogers deceased_." Whatever line of thought was running around in the hero's head had been halted brutally in their tracks.

We saw blood spurt through the sky, hidden by the storm and just outside of our reach while the curses of the Capes we had already found grew more bitter. Some started to remove their armbands entirely, only to be stopped by their teammates through one of our quiet whispers while others just requested that the announcements stopped. Anger spiked at some places to the point that we almost felt like utilizing more overt means to stop them. Still, we stayed quiet and had 329 and the three amigos wait in the minefield without even modifying a single one of them.

Time and sheer pragmatism was on our side. It had been less than two minutes since the last death. The Endbringer was stepping up its game. They _needed_ us whether they liked it or not. And if there was one thing we were certain of, Narwhal _really_ didn't like this reality.

"Follow us," Chevalier finally ordered after another burst of communication that threatened to break his neutral mask.

We did as we told and approached with a speed that hinted at our mover capability without showing aggression. There was simply no way that we were able to make strides as big as we did without any powers.

"You are cleared to attack to kill if you think she tries something funny," Chevalier whispered to his bodyguards while we approached, knuckles turning white underneath his gloves and covering the microphone. "Don't hold anything back and some of us might survive the fallout."

The trio surrounded us wordlessly when we arrived, and, with a small nod and frantic waving of Clover, Alex, and Sam, we started our quick march towards the heavily fortified tent we had picked as command. We didn't correct their misconception that we hadn't been able to hear their plotting. It would be a shame if something as silly as having to defend myself from twitchy future allies would sabotage our diplomatic efforts. _We_ were following them invisibly anyway in case something particularly stupid happened.

Our indignation was much better funneled into squashing the rampant paranoid conspiring that happened on the PHO boards. It wouldn't take long before things truly started to become toxic. Luckily, Snake Queen was already rumored to be a Protectorate Cape. We could at least convince some people that they weren't in any immediate danger. For everyone else, we had a veritable armory of ban hammers of all shapes and sizes yearning to be used and they knew it. It wasn't as if we'd have any luck communicating with our PRT-insider anytime soon anyway.

"Will the Faery Queen be joining this battle, or did she already leave?" Miss Militia asked out of the blue when we traded the warm spotlights for what little of the cold afternoon sun managed to penetrate the thick cloud cover. The numerous turrets, meanwhile, had returned to threaten the incoming storm.

We cocked our head in confusion. "We haven't talked to Ciara since she left the Birdcage's fate and that of its inhabitants in our capable claws. Hasn't she discussed her plans to the Protectorate when she arrived? We occasionally talked about them before she returned to the world proper."

The heartrate spiked in all three heroes who were accompanying us when the implications hit them. The rest of the base remained happily oblivious while they returned to their grim duties of preparing a possible defense and evacuation against impossible odds – all except the ones sitting in the communications and command tent.

"Were you expecting her?" we asked while stacking the wide-eyed innocence and obliviousness thickly in our voice.

To their credit, none of our escorts reacted too badly at the sudden shift to a behavior that was closer to the norm of our age – closer to how we might have been before they let one of their Wards corrupt my best friend and ruin us. Before they had thrown us into a hellhole of their construction without a care whether we'd survive a single day or not.

Even if we were just as happy to help humanity, we had to concede that it was about equal parts of spiteful showing how wrong they had been as it was a childhood dream. It didn't mean that we had forgiven and forgotten all that happened before. We hoped they'd put in the effort of trying to regain our trust – even if it was to pacify the terrible monster they thought us to be.

Until that moment we allowed ourselves some petulance and pettiness. It was what society expected of teens. Their annoyance would help us stay my hand from removing the snake that had seized control of _our_ local PRT station until the time we could ensure it wouldn't erode any and all trust the public had in the government agency. After all, most people didn't tolerate literal kidnappers all that well.

" _I_ had assumed the Faery Queen had aided your escape," Miss Militia carefully answered, taking the potential blame from her bosses on her. "Sliver."

We gave her the broadest and toothiest smile without shifting 329's body in her more natural form upon hearing our hastily and cautiously added moniker.

"Ciara is a firm believer of growing through one's own effort, strength and diligence." Apparently referring to Glaistig Uaine with her first name freaked people out. "She left when she realized her involvement might unnecessarily hinder ours. She talked about seeking out peers of ours leading up to her early retirement out of the 'Cage."

Of course, we knew about her meeting with both Eidolon and Moord Nag and how neither ended in any killed parties. The PRT bigshots were quite panicky about both situations and we had direct access to the internal e-mails that resulted of said crisis. They were delicious.

"We left on our own when we concluded that an Endbringer was systematically destroying our cage. Dying wasn't an option for our little family and we thought we might as well help out if we're going leaving anyway."

"Why would you die?" Miss Militia asked while we walked past the barely occupied medical tent.

"A lot of tinkertech is involved in maintaining that pit," we replied easily. "Big things like spatial manipulation generators and variable artificial gravity. We didn't rate our chance of surviving whatever will happen when everything reverts back to normal after they lose power as high."

We gave our minders a moment to remember what they've undoubtedly been told about us and let them paint their own graphic picture of what had to happen to threaten us so thoroughly.

"Don't worry," we added when all quarters had dropped and before someone could utter the obvious question that would follow. "We made sure nobody suffered that fate."

Their and their bosses pondering gave us some blessed quiet for the rest of the short way to our destination. Grim determination showed on our newly-made friend's faces and we knew that the occupants of nerve-center were too busy discussing and modeling to interrupt it with their radio chatter. At least those occupants that weren't already busy running damage control against a monster that had been picking off Capes one by one for the entire fight. Nor had any of those feverishly trying to come up with an escape plan anything to add to the halted conversation.

The momentary quiet for the storm suited us just fine. It gave us some peace and quiet to order thoughts of our own before 329 entered the lion's den. We could prepare for the disappointment we were likely to face when more of our childhood heroes turned out to be not what they seemed.

We already knew about the hidden, checkered past many popular heroes had. We weren't foolish enough to expect that humans suddenly became immune to bribes and corruption just because they got some minor power. Not when the good guys were so massively outnumbered by those trying to take the easy way out. Not when considering those powers manifested on the worst day of their lives and were marked by the event for the rest of it.

Not when we knew for a fact that powers could be sold. That the changed, conveniently amnesiac Capes had to come from somewhere. We had long since concluded that the numbers simply didn't add up for them to be mere unlucky triggers. There weren't striking missing-person cases that fit the bill before one of them showed up. Amnesia wasn't such a constant factor in all other cases. Denial, delusions, mania, and many other problems, sure. Straight up amnesia? Not so much.

It wasn't just us getting infected by the inane rambling of conspiracy theorists I had to herd on a daily basis, that led us to conclude that someone up high likely knew something about what was truly happening. And it didn't get much higher than the Triumvirate, some of whom we were about to meet.

We desperately hoped that the trust we naively put in our childhood idol by dressing up like her hadn't been too misplaced. That it was mere chance that the photos taken of Alexandria were at such an angle that complete body and facial reconstructions remained imprecise. That it had been basic human decency that moved our mightiest heroes to talk about the problems of the Birdcage and the dangers of judging Capes just because of what they _could_ do with their powers.

At the least, we didn't foster any illusions that the way our most important contacts found one of our sock-puppets was simple coincidence. Someone skilled at the game of subterfuge was enjoying our presence. We were sure of that.

The entrance of the main tent came all too quickly. Once we came close enough to perceive them in their entirety, there wouldn't be any more hiding. We had become too perceptive for that. Beefy would've died in vain if we allowed simple wishful thinking to lower our efforts in spotting potential dangers. Especially if the ones involved had a direct line with Thinktanks all around the globes and were using them to come up with possible plans against us – against the family we had so painstakingly made.

There were no flaps or doors to be opened. The Capes in charge of defending people they likely would likely only manage to slow down when worst came to worst, made way when our little convoy approached. We just walked the tense parahumans without a word, without a challenge to be uttered. It was to be expected. They were right at the source of the operation and would likely be the first ones warned not to freak out in front of us. That was if they couldn't just listen in on the planning sessions that led to us being allowed to come close in the first place.

Their palpable nervous fear didn't prevent them from staring daggers at our back as we took in the Capes we'd be dealing with. It was the first time to look at everyone involved directly, with our own eyes, and confirm the identity of the dozen Capes that were gathered here. We hadn't dared to surround the tent close enough with our hidden forces to get all the details first-hand in case they happened to have the necessary sensors needed to pierce all our veils. Or if Eidolon had decided to spend one of his slot on an utterly broken Thinker power.

" _Salvo deceased_." The sound coming from each individual armband startled the present Capes out of their stares and the majority, those that didn't matter to us personally, went back to minimizing the damage this attack had done.

Narwhal hurried back to a busy Masamune while Chevalier positioned himself in the entrance where he had a good view on me, our target, and Accord. It was the latter villain, who truly managed to come close to surprise us with his presence. We shifted the three decoys in such a manner that no matter how the villain looked, he would notice that they were lounging on top of 329 in a wholly unsymmetrical fashion and made our way to join the ones calling the actual shots in this operation.

"Thank you for seeing us without too much fuss," we said with a curtsey and a smile while we heard Accord's heartrate spike and a pen break.

At least the minor suffering of the villain brought us some distraction of how our simulations went in a direction that was guaranteed to leave us disappointed.

Legend, who we had seen fly in on our approach, was watching us with a mixture of regret, apprehension, and a touch of hope. Eidolon was further in the back, cycling through powers with grim determination. Alexandria simply nodded in acknowledgment to our greeting while trying to appear as stoic and steadfast as the tower she had chosen for her symbol.

In isolation, the reaction wouldn't have been that strange. Neither was the guilt all shared that mainly manifested in an ability to look us in the eyes. It was almost to be expected after the recent shift in climate and their declarations that they wanted to ensure that the Birdcage as a whole would be re-evaluated. That the male members of the Triumvirate seemed to look to Alexandria for cues would be expected as well. This was a long-established team and it was only natural that they'd be comfortable to the hierarchy they showed the world and defer to their de-facto team leader.

It was only when someone had access to the resources we did, that things started to look more sinister. Their guilt seemed to be a bit too personal. Legend had been a touch too happy to see us.

After _seeing_ Alexandria in person our dark suspicions had sadly been confirmed as well. Now that we had her dimensions and precise facial structures, interpolating her into other pictures had been a piece of cake as well. Even if clever makeup, fillers, and wigs were used on top of extensive measures taken that pictures and recordings were only taken from certain, deliberate angles.

The biggest, give-away, however, was something that had always been hidden underneath a visor at first and then the current helmet: her eyes. Especially her artificial eye showed the same imperfections that made them look like a real eye, the same capillary layout, and iris coloration, as a certain ex-chief director that was supposed to be in jail after we leaked proof of collusion, favoritism, and a criminal lack of parahuman oversight to the public.

We regretted our choice of costume now that we knew for sure that one of our biggest heroes had been playing the public for the longest time and would still be doing just that if we hadn't put a stop to it. Someone who had apparently no trouble sending a double to take her place in jail. Worse, with how long the Triumvirate had existed and for how seemingly close they were, we estimated the chance of the other two not knowing as negligible. Even worse, they knew, and they still deferred to her to make decisions. Both Legend and Eidolon had to be in on the same plot as Alexandria.

That on its own wouldn't even have been that bad. We were in no position to berate someone for playing the long game through cloak and dagger means after the strings we had created and then pulled to allow our escape. Emma could've gotten into serious trouble for getting copies of some of the strictly offline documents for example. We knew that multiple people got arrested in protests we had organized for our selfish goals.

The thing that pushed my anger right to the forefront was how personally affected the three were by my presence. How they didn't seem to be surprised even after we, for all accounts, should have stopped the information-flow from the 'Cage once and for all after Lindy joined us. It made their personal involvement in our own fate a bitter likelihood.

It made them people who would throw an innocent girl into hell to achieve… something. Something big enough to cross the Rubicon and risk everything if people found out.

"We're glad to have you on our side, Sliver," Alexandria replied, oblivious of the thought processes that went on behind our stoic mask.

We let our smile grow into a full-on grin and jumped excitedly on the spot as we decided on a way to test some of our theories.

"Call us Taylor, it's not like our identity is secret anyway," we blabbed excitedly while we had the decoys employ Pinkie's power on 329. "Before we start can we first have your autographs? We've been your biggest fans growing up."

Alexandria hesitated in face of our suddenly beaming face, Legend looked like we had stabbed him a little and twisted the knife, while Eidolon seemed to instead prepare for a potential confrontation.

"It'll only take a second," we added in a more self-conscious and hesitant tone. "It's just, we are a bit star-struck finally meeting the three of you and getting the chance of working together. We might be able to better focus on saving the day afterward, knowing that we wouldn't have missed our chance due to an unfortunate death."

The last line tickled a small chuckle out of Legend who addressed Alexandria, "It's probably faster to at least give her this than to try to dissuade her. And if it makes her happy, why not?"

We, in our faked teeny optimism, took it as permission to approach them with the pen and paper that appeared in our hands. The implements had to be freshly made for them not to interfere with our psychometric powers. The ones we had just turned up to eleven to be able to confirm our fears.

It was a power we had forced ourselves to keep on after we lost Beefy as an extra layer of protection. Living some of the horribleness other inmates committed helped us to better rehabilitate them. It, however, had one major drawback that the clearer and cohesive pictures came at the cost of potentially losing ourselves in the history of a person or item. Labrat had been pretty bad even on a surface level and we shuddered to think what kind of torment too much information would've unleashed upon us.

We couldn't allow for misconceptions and paranoia to mess our relationship with some of the world's strongest heroes. Neither would we allow for schemes to remain hidden. If they wanted to continue they better had a good reason for doing so. If they didn't, I had to plan on how to best remove them without causing general and cleanse the reputation of the Protectorate afterward. To achieve that, we would need to dial our psychometry too near-crippling levels of too much information. We _would_ protect ourselves.

Alexandria looked like she still wanted to object and thought of a reason to decline that wouldn't raise too much suspicion. It was her bad luck that she underestimated the speeds at which we could move in a non-threatening and excited skip and a hop.

We brushed her glove and were and used it to get to our actual target. We dove into Alexandria's past and _witnessed_ her live leading up to this moment.

We saw her hospital stay and internally grimaced when it became clear that the rumors of powers in a bottle were true. We grew into the role of a hero as part and under the watchful eyes of the organization led by a doctor in name only and an entirely too scary woman. The organization that saved her. We felt the apprehension and guilt she had when she started to pick up the mortally wounded and sick from alternate earths grow less and replaced with conviction and self-loathing. We slogged through secret meetings when Hero was still around and suffered the loss caused by his death. We saw the thousands of mutated and deformed experiments that led to the vials that gave her and her teammates their powers.

We heard the doctor explain just what being allowed them to distill powers in a bottle and how they got it. The mind-bendingly big corpse was shown, and it was revealed that it had a mate that was destined to kill earth in its entirety. All versions of it.

Everyone would die if the very first Parahuman wasn't killed.

We had been just another potential weapon in the fires, another tool that might be thrown at the golden figure that had been seen increasingly unfocused as of late.

It took a lot of our effort to preserve our happy mask and cancel enough of our psychometry to prevent losing ourselves in Alexandria's life. On the outside, no time had passed, and the heroine hadn't apparently noticed anything, taking the piece and paper and solemnly scribbling her famous signature. Legend was the next to oblige and even the elusive Eidolon did so while only slightly begrudging being disturbed.

All to keep a monster of their making happy. All to please us.

"Before we start," Alexandria said neutrally after we moved towards a holographic map of the area. "For the sake of considering all our tactical option, I'd like to confirm that we aren't talking to your main body."

Hundreds of unseen children floating around the tent prepared to eradicate the area if the next lines weren't to our liking while we maintained our perfectly happy smile. Outwards we only appeared to take a more pensive stance.

" _Be very careful with what you say next_ , _'Becca_ ," hundreds of hissing voices whispered directly and exclusively into her ears thanks to Mimi. " _We know that you plan to fight Scion as much as we know that Cauldron is directly responsible for ruining our life. We're willing to move past that for the sake of that goal and to save lives on this battlefield. For now, at least. We will have questions later and we will get answers after we're done here._ "

We had a lot of opinions of Alexandria, most of which were negative or at least tarnished by the things we recently learned, but we still had to respect her poker face. If we weren't able to directly read all her vitals, we wouldn't have noticed that our metaphorical bomb had any impact. She had a good way of handling terror.

"We didn't know how people would react and how safe we'd be after just escaping as a yet to be pardoned criminal," we admitted softly a moment after the question was asked. "But in our defense, we can also better coordinate our children inside the storm this way. I hope, it wasn't too presumptuous. While confessing, I would also like to ask that nobody tries to bother the occasional cute snake they might find in the camp. We need them to maintain our communication."

We laughed nervously which Legend took as a sign to answer. "Under the circumstances, it is to be expected. I think everyone gathered here can agree on that much."

Legend gave us his fatherliest smile while glancing at Alexandria.

"Might we just ask how you found out?" we asked the latter in the hopes of breaking her out of her hidden stupor.

"It was a lot of little things," she answered, her voice growing to her former colossal confidence with each word. "The deciding factor that blindly wading into potential enemy territory didn't fit your psy–"

" _Genoscythe deceased_ ," the announcement interrupted Alexandria mid-sentence. Again, the interval between the reports had shortened.

"We can argue about how she knows what and the whys afterward," Eidolon finally spoke up, frustration lacing his voice. "What we have to focus on now is how you can help and what you need from us. There has to be a reason why you came to us first instead of just joining the fight straight away."

We felt the corners of our mouth wander upwards at his refreshing directness and answered in kind. "It's quite simple. We have found a way to navigate in the storm and ignore the effects it has on our sense of direction and motivation to get out. We have located numerous groups that, plenty of whom are about to go at each other's throats. What we need is our presence officially announced to prevent panic and we need the permission to carry the lost Capes out – by non-lethal, non-harming force if necessary. After that, we can start hunting the monster that's causing all of this."

The three of them seemed to come to the same conclusion at practically the same time. That's the major advantage if people fear and respect you. They tend to comply to reasonable demands that obviously benefitted them as well.

"We can provide you that much," Alexandria answered while lifting her modified armband in preparation. "However, we need your word that you _will_ honor the Truce. Failure in doing so will earn you a Kill Order that goes into effect immediately. Do you understand?"

"Perfectly!" we chirped while we moved closer to the stranded parahumans. "We only ever wanted to help."

"That also means no turning people into your snakes." We opened our mouth, but Alexandria answered our unspoken question before we had the chance to ask it. "Those who want to join can only after explicit verbal communication with us."

"Are we allowed to perform first-aid surgery and help in the medical team on base? We are more than qualified to do both. We will tell you every time we're about to do something."

"What methods do you consider non-lethal and non-harming?" Legend asked, worry slightly coloring his voice.

"I'll grab the Capes I can reach and fly them out after announcing my intentions. If people fight us or others, we can simply freeze them in place through fear and then carry them out. It will also help us deal with unruly Breakers. We'll ask if we think we need more persuasive methods."

We were ready to shift into fully visible Taylors to better grab and transport people.

"In that case," Legend announced. "I have no objection."

Eidolon huffed in agreement and Alexandria gave us one last hard look before pressing a button.

"Attention all fighters," she spoke into her armband, clearly enunciating her every word. "Be aware that the Parahuman known as Sliver is about to join the battle as a friendly. Do not be alarmed and do not, I repeat, do not attack her. She will get you out of the storm."

We waited a moment for the message to be translated and repeated to make sure everyone would have heard it over the howling of the wind. Pictures of our current form were added to be projected out of the armband to eliminate all confusion.

Then hundreds of friendly smiling Taylors appeared in the raging blizzard in front of an equal number of bewildered Capes.

Finally, it was go time.


	8. Chapter 5-3

**Neither Worm or Magic the Gathering belongs to me. If you recognize it, chances are high it belongs to either John McCrae or Wizards of the Coast.**

 **Huge thanks to Roffster for betaing and proofreading this chapter.**

 **I had fun writing this chapters of the adventures of One for All: snek edition. I hope it shows.**

 **Also, the next chapter can be expected significantly sooner than is likely expected of me by now.**

 **As always, comments and constructive feedbacks are greatly appreciated**

* * *

 **Chapter 5.3**

* * *

We waved and walked as non-threateningly towards the soon to be rescued Capes as we could. It involved some minor manipulation and shifting of our form for some of the more skittish ones, aiming for their idea of how someone friendly ought to be – especially if they were still grouped up. Apparently, people react poorly to seeing a bunch of clones of someone who _really_ shouldn't be in a given area.

Fortunately, we were able to talk the vast majority of those groups out of rash actions after personally introducing ourselves. Sure, it might have taken a bit longer than we liked, but even with the forced online learning we did to prepare for these situations, our speech patterns were stiff and robotic. It turned out only two small groups with a majority of career criminals had to be scared into compliance.

Nonetheless, we felt the spike of sheer anxiety and terror that ran through Arbiter when our focus subtly shifted on her while diverting a harmless, virtually crawling projectile out of our way with Flow's orb of fun. Just imagining how much her ability to perfect languages and all the little dialects would help us almost made us shiver. It was enough for us to want to talk to her when the horror that was this Endbringer was behind us. When people stopped seeing us as some ticking timebomb waiting to explode. Even if she didn't want to join our family, we could get pointers to improve our algorithms.

Seeing her work with a mute Canary gave us all manner of ideas how both of them could help us establish ourselves. How we might shrug off the stigma and prejudice that was attached to us when we were made into a spectacle.

"So," 329 began to try and improve the stiflingly oppressive atmosphere in the command tent. "Have you heard more news of Ciara? Important people seemed to assume she got me out of the 'Cage but last time I heard from her, she wanted to take a short vacation in Africa. Do some sightseeing."

"We haven't," Alexandria began after a pause that was a bit too long, only to change her mind upon seeing our skeptical gaze leveled at her. "She was last sighted in Europe. Our Thinkers postulate that she might be going after the Three Blasphemies."

We began dropping off the Capes that were stranded in the storm at the gate closest to us. It was difficult moving at the speeds we wanted even when we stabilized the panicking and sometimes borderline humans with an extra pair of arms.

A non-verbal communication between Alexandria and Eidolon happened in the time it took the heroine to take a breath.

A breath that formed into a short, soft sigh before she continued. "It also coincides with what she told Eidolon before confronting Moord Nag. She among other things talked about finding potential peers."

We clapped our hands in joy. "So, the rumors were true!" We looked at Eidolon. "You did talk to Ciara! We had to look really hard to even find those rumors on the internet, so major kudos to your information suppression squad. Considering you're still standing here, it's really sweet. She's truly trying to connect with others. Just as we asked her to. Did she give you any tips?"

Eidolon seemed to grow increasingly uncomfortable the faster we spoke. "She did give some pointers."

"She likes to nudge people along with gentle pushes so they can figure it out themselves," we replied with a pensive nod.

The surplus of invisible DNGR units who had dropped off their loads was happily looking at all the different guns, bombs, and gadgets of the other tinkers now that that had their claw free. Ideas of how to adapt and integrate components into our own designs came flooding in while we mentally dismantled the secret mechanisms the Tinkers had tried to hide. We also spotted plenty of widgets we could likely "borrow" without anyone noticing if the need arose.

"It does mean that we can't count on Ciara to help out, though." We sighed and looked Eidolon in the eyes. "She prefers her associates to be self-sufficient. This is a test for both of us."

"We'll pass it," Eidolon replied into the silence that followed. His wholly undramatic face simply radiated worry from underneath his fancy neon hood that did absolutely nothing to hide his face to us.

We dropped off the next couple of capes in the mounting tension that preceded the next attack. Arbiter relayed commands more tersely. Accord took a couple of breaths to center himself and no matter how we shifted the trio, the asymmetry seemed to slide off him. The triumvirate simply grew silent. Tired. We would be as well if we had to go through similar horrors so many times as they had. If we had caused as many in one way or another.

Instead of moping around, we focused on finishing the stimulated testing of various potential cannons and modeled what happened if we had to grow one or multiple pieces ourselves. We focused on the trio of Hookwolf, Cricket, and Stormtiger, who we were shadowing and had left in the howling storm. It had only taken slight nudges to separate them from their larger groups. We still had to be able to use something as bait, and we knew that none of the Capes we rescued had done worse things than those three. It was also just a matter of arriving at the conclusion that nobody of worth would miss the monster and his two psycho-lackeys. We simply wanted to pay them back all the troubles and woes they had inflicted upon Dad for simply showing moral fiber and a bit of backbone.

With less than a third of the people still to find and trapped in the Endbringer's hunting ground, the chances of the nervously rubbernecking Cricket and Stormtiger becoming the next victim grew vastly – so long as the monster didn't suddenly change its tactics. Based on its previous behavior, we estimated that we could force it towards parts that had a lower us-concentration. Especially if we could have a large part of us hovering over the localized blizzard and presumably outside of its detection range.

We didn't have much hope of Hookwolf just being eliminated in an instant but that only meant that we might get an opportunity to put him on the road of redemption sooner rather than later. Without Alexandria starting a hypocritical hissy fit as long as we timed it right.

" _Comet deceased._ "

"So," we began while the communications center tried to once more quell the impeding panicked riot of everyone still caught inside the storm. "How do we stand from a resource-specific standpoint? Do we have anything we can throw at the bastard that shows promise of doing anything more than inconvenience it?"

"Some of the Tinkers outside believe their cannons can harm them," Alexandria answered after a brief consideration. "Kid Win's weapons platform is untested but might scratch it. Of the others, we know even less because they aren't under the purview of the Protectorate. Masamue recently put together a tool using weaponized nanotech and gave it to Dispatch in the hope that his power defies the odds. Armsmaster has developed a new launcher he says can do some serious harm to any Endbringer. Considering the success of his mobile containment field, we're inclined to believe him."

In summary, not much and we better got something cobbled together fast. Tick-Tock would allow us to build something potent to hit the monster with if we got the timing right. Running some calculations, we concluded that we should be able to fire it right when the monster started its third attack from now – corrected for the decreasing time interval between attacks, of course. If we got some help, at least.

"What are our emergency evacuation options?" We asked as our borrowing process began and to ease them into the idea of letting us build with their resources. "Also, where are Dispatch and Armsmaster? We're certainly interested in analyzing their gear sooner rather than later!"

"Both of them are still in the storm," Alexandria replied after a minuscule hitch in which she centered herself. She knew where we were going. Excellent.

"As to evacuation options," Legend continued with a pained look on his face. "We lost Strider when we tried evacuating Gully's team. The _fucker_ was waiting for him."

He was grimacing when he was done speaking, his breathing heavy while obviously holding back sheer, raw anger. It seemed that not all the casualties had been adults.

"If we could get our claws on the right materials," we said after the desperation sunk in a bit further and diving into the unexplored part of the storm. "If we were allowed to recycle the weaponry least likely to deal significant damage we can make a stable portal to safety right in this base. The med bay could be kept out of the Endbringer's reach and those who want to leave, can."

Hope spiked in the tent. Canary let out the first, joyous and exceedingly melodious sound since we arrived only to subconsciously grasp her color and shrink back into herself.

"What do you hope to get out of this Sl – Taylor?" Alexandria asked, her mask unreadable to anyone who did not read vital signs directly.

A nervous giggle propagated among us. "I might have claimed a factory and started building raw DNGR units. And most of a teleporter that was supposed to be our primary method of escape."

We shrugged, being careful to isolate it to 329 to avoid unnerving the gathered Parahumans further. Cricket shouted at the place her cute ghost was following into the storm. It felt weird and we saw no reason to also give Stormtiger the chance for some target practice by making sudden movements with his loyal follower. The obscenity also got a bit repetitive already so I couldn't even claim educational progress as a reason to mess with the Aryan Trio.

"It was designed to work with a receiver," we continued as we found the first couple isolated victims that still remained in the howling storm. "That can be built in a couple of minutes with the right tools. Even without it, we should have their end reconfigured in about twenty or we could just grow the missing parts if we don't get interrupted."

Our smile grew a bit wider. It was great not having to worry about the heat signature those rapid growing processes produced. There were no suicide bots taking objection to that on the outside. And time was of the essence here.

"There are enough units to cover the storm after we activate them," we answered Alexandria's obvious follow-up question to speed things along – tempus fugit and everything. "And we can secure the base _and_ help with potential wounded at the same time. They won't suddenly make me want to go evil overlord."

Another sigh escaped Alexandria's lips. "Accord, pick the Tinkers you think pack the least firepower and tell them to hand their tech to Sliver. Remind them that it's an emergency. They can complain later. When we've survived."

Accord nodded approvingly and handed a neat, pre-prepared list of names to Arbiter. We, meanwhile, had found the last group still trapped in the storm and according to the hacked armband database, only a handful of wandering potential victims were yet to be located. Each of the isolated Capes now had five units tailing them. Enough of our children were around the edges of the unexplored, _confusing_ bit of blizzard to hopefully make attacking the missing parahumans extremely unattractive compared to the delicious, racist bait we set out.

If the next attack worked out as we planned, we could finally finish looking for the pull we felt since we arrived here. We would have enough units to spare if the portal was up and running. It was diffuse, but we were sure it _had_ to come from that small patch of white hell we still had to explore. No matter how spread-out it seemed to be.

We scared the living daylights out of the chosen and thoroughly unhappy Tinkers by materializing in front of them as smiling Taylors. We were already there so it was only a matter of picking out the ones whose armband suddenly spoke up, thanking them for their contributions with a thumbs up, and setting off with the cannons. On top of the other things we had acquired.

"We're also going to make a gun of our own," we informed the Triumvirate as we were counting down the seconds to the next attack. "Unless you want to insist on flying in yourselves to punch it if we do manage to catch the monster. Or don't want us to exploit every option."

It was mean of us and more than a little cheeky, but we knew that none of the shocked heroes would be able to formulate a response in the time it took for the next attack to happen. It would help to highlight the need for the big guns.

Three.

Two DNGR units appeared on the site of the soon-to-be teleporter, dug in, and began to sprout sweeping arches of bone under the silent eyes of the gathered humans.

Two.

We reached an optimal spread over and through the unnatural storm that was this monster's hunting ground. No matter which of our Capes it attacked, we were ready to pile on top of it in a moments notice. We didn't have to worry about stealth. We could just charge straight ahead along our network using every go-fast power we shared.

One.

The arcs of the teleporter fused, and we started sculpting them. We wove metals and more through them while the raw units started altering the existing machinery on their end. The code for the changes finally finished. Alexandria opened her mouth.

Even knowing and expecting it was coming, the monster was fast. That wasn't quite correct. The effects of its storm made it seem faster than it was.

That didn't mean, that many others besides us had much chance moving out of the way in time. To our begrudging respect, Stormtiger appeared to be one of those few individuals.

His Power having apparently allowed him to feel something coming from behind, he launched himself forward in a burst of wind that dispersed the snow. A practiced twist and a little flair brought him face-to-face with his doom. It only delayed the inevitable by less than a second.

Alexandria was saying something inconsequential while Legend tried to moderate. Only Eidolon seemed to be aware why we couldn't be bothered with the pretend-play that time, his eyes wide while they alternated between 329 and where our battle was going to be.

Stormtiger's cruel grin of anticipation was wiped off his face when he noticed his legs being frozen to the ground with a crack and a wet tear as he tried to move.

We noticed his heart skip a beat when the sight of the monster set in.

We didn't blame him. Standing on all fours in front of him was a twenty feet tall figure. The arms were too long, the body too short for either pair of limbs to fit properly. Brown, bristly fur packed with snow made him blend into the background with ease and even his softly swaying spiked tail helped with the illusion. Giant, lopsided antlers that looked like they could pierce steel adorned his wolf-like skull. The eyes were missing and a jagged slit running vertically over his muzzle seemed to indicate that even his mouth was added the wrong way. He looked like what would happen if you had someone draw a wolf or dog who had only ever seen humanoids with just the barest descriptions of the creature in question. And then added some details just to mess with the test subject to try to freak them out.

"We see him," we simply stated, not caring who might hear us; glad that it shut up the nagging humans in the tent.

The monster wasn't as broad-shouldered or seemingly clumsy as his only other quadrupedal brother. It easily lifted his left arm with a silent, deliberate grace to reveal hands tipped with dirty, blackened claws. Too long limbs shifting and moving to bring the hand closer to the trapped Cape with a nearly imperceptible speed.

Stormtiger reacted by throwing his arms up with a sweeping motion to launch blades of air that gouged the ground at his impending doom while we rushed in the all the DNGR units we believed wouldn't get into each other's way. More were set up to act as a perimeter in case strike force alpha wasn't enough to capture it.

The blades hit the humanoid monster in the head with a thunderous boom. We didn't have to wait for the snow to settle unnaturally fast to know that it had barely damaged his coat of snow.

The villain had to wait until the Endbringer opened his mouth and to reveal a single ice-blue eye shining balefully from deep within the cavity. Stormtiger didn't notice the amused posture the wrongly proportioned, emaciated body had adopted.

He had barely enough time to start screaming obscenities before the monster moved his head and hand with a lazy grace that belied the near instantaneous speed with which it happened.

" _Stormtiger, deceased_ ," the armbands announced all around us while we witnessed the left hand grabbing the skull, piercing the eyes, to stabilize his victim and took a single bite that removed most of the thorax in a single, crunching bite of his toothless mouth.

More of us streamed both to our tinkering site and the strike-force about to dive onto the Endbringer while Stormtiger's observer grew and shifted, becoming more real than reality allowed. He exploded towards the monster like a furry missile with claws and an extra helping of murderous intent.

We startled the Triumvirate with a sudden hiss while making a quick sketch of the Endbringer and provided running commentary. Even with Jet allowing us to teleport the distance needed and the perception required to keep perfect track of individual bacteria if we felt like it, we missed. He dodged outside of our extended range.

We cursed the previously unnoticed or unused effect of his bloody storm, the awareness it gave the monster. At the base, 4 units fused with each other through their bones to create a flying platform for our canon that would be operational in 5 minutes and thirty-seven seconds.

The Endbringer – Amarok we decided together with Alexandria – threatened to fade away into the storm again, moving with the same slow quickness that made anticipating his attacks so difficult. The storm picking up together with the disorienting effect we had difficulties to counter even with half of us well outside of it. Our vanguard wouldn't arrive on time.

A deep, rumbling impact echoed throughout the valley we were fighting in, loud enough to overwhelm the howling of the wind. We grunted as the collision with Drover's crimson barriers broke two and cracked the third that stood in Amarok's way. More appeared as he turned, forcing him to stand still. Allowing us to surround the Endbringer with our strike team and unleash a barrage of spikes.

Humans startled when the cracking sound of a thousand sonic booms reached them in lightning-quick series. We felt the fear spike to a new high when a loud thunder followed moments later as we manipulated the spikes to impact at the very same time and on as small an area as possible.

None of them managed to penetrate the neck to any significant degree; we hadn't done enough damage to get a pull on him through Missy.

It was then that the sky lit up by beams of light and elements coalesced to the very same point. It was the same moment a giant representation of us made of hard light encircled the trapped Endbringer, her claw already coming down. We manipulated the pieces of ourselves that were embedded in the Endbringer.

Terror acid and base bore deep into the cracks, widening them while mixing. Electricity flowed through it and motes of embers glowed an angry white.

The heat, the ongoing reaction, the sawing fields of sheer energy, the reactive particles, they all reached critical mass at the same time the barrage of beams impacted the abused spot on the Endbringer.

The resulting explosion seemed to stretch reality near breaking point and the rumble was felt from the safety of the command tent. Amarok was forced to the ground by the sheer force involved in that combined attack. He landed in just the right position to take the strike of mega-us with no way to dodge or divert the force.

The ground cracked, buckled, and cratered as our collective projection tore through layers of the monster, losing substance and momentum with each of them until the giant claw got stuck.

Amarok let out a ringing howl of pure malice from inside his crimson prison, quadrupling down on the isolating effect of the storm, forcing us to counter it by freezing the humans still stuck in it in place with Anne's power.

"We tagged Amarok with a tracer," we said through a grimace brought forth from the combined mental effects we felt. "Hold fire until we give the go-ahead."

Even if we doubted that the weapons we had seen would be able to do anything against the monster if our attack hadn't done more than to slightly inconvenience him, it was only a common courtesy to share it with anyone who wanted to be disappointed anyway.

The twenty DNGR units that made Strike Force alpha dove into the hole of the storm our attack created in a perfect circle formation, changing, growing stronger while they teleported downwards, their after-images slicing through the space behind them. The stalker unit quietly snuck off to retrieve Stormtiger's head while the brain could still be used. Nobody would mourn if they couldn't complete the jigsaw puzzle of that scum and nobody would notice an additional cute noodle. Not now that there'd be no way to register the _twisting_ of a dead man removed from the armband.

Strike Force alpha crashed into the recovering Endbringer slashing his arms, legs, and fresh wounds thousands of times.

Power was building while the teleporter's start-up sequence entered its first phase and the frame of _our_ big gun was connected to the units that had created the platform to provide the energy needed.

We ignored the barely concealed, terrified stares of the Triumvirate aimed in our general direction while we reported how we had four units for each limb of the buckled Amarok encase their limbs with a mixture of still connected bone and silk. Bones dug into the ground and formed deep-reaching roots that spread out and fused with the others to hopefully keep him bound.

The remaining four units had curled themselves around the snarling monster's neck, two claws each pointing at the still superficial wound while we pumped more mass into them. They started striking at the same spot in perfect coordination, each claw moved away as the next hit. Getting faster and stronger with each and every strike that landed.

It was a pity that Jet didn't seem to play nice with Piston. It would've made getting rid of the Endbringer a matter of mere moments. Instead, I had to do it the old-fashioned way.

Heat, base, and acid strengthened the destruction of each of the ramping strikes. Siren made them even better at picking away at the affront of nature that was struggling underneath us.

It would take a while and throwing more units would only cause them to be in each other's way. So, we decided to resume our search and rescue action with the ones that weren't doing much anyway. We still wanted to see what the world's mightiest Tinker had cooked up during his renewed wave of inspiration. We also still had to find that infuriatingly nagging pull that came from inside the unexplored area.

Of course, that was the moment it all went to shit.

Another howl exploded over the battlefield, forcing the capes inside the storm to their knees.

The storm exploded outwards, reaching the edge of the camp.

Suddenly enemies approached from outside the execution grounds, forcing us to retaliate, previous goals forgotten as we fired away at the creeping enemies.

" _Dauntless down, Azreal down, Burninator down, Floret do-_ " the armband was barely able to be heard over the panicked screaming of those caught inside the storm. It brought us back to our senses and the realization of what just happened settled in like a wolfram weight.

Amarok had escaped and had decided that he was done playing. He still had plenty of ways of dealing with us.

The whispers reminded us uncomfortably of the monster that had been Play Time.


End file.
